


The Hotchner Kids

by MintyBoi



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Adopted Derek Morgan, Adopted Penelope Garcia, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Adopted Spencer Reid, Adoption, Adorable Spencer Reid, Bisexual Elle Greenway, But only the original mains, Children, College is stressful. So I'm rewriting high school as if it was better., Cute Kids, Cute Spencer Reid, Dad Hotch, Dad Hotch is best Hotch, David Rossi teaches English, Drama between teachers, Emily is the new kid, Every character in this will be from the show, Foster Care, Foyet is the school nurse, High School, Highschool Drama, Highschool stress, Hotch is Spencer's Dad, Hotch is a foster dad, Hotch is a lawyer, Hotch is tired, How did I do that? I'm not sure, I do not know how the foster system actually works, I forgot all the children tags, I killed Haley and Jack..., I will be adding more characters, I will be adding to this mess of tags, I'm Sorry, I'm having a field day with characters, I'm writing it when I'm done with school, If you actually got through the mess of tags good for you, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, It is still a crack idea, It wasn't., It won't let me tag Dad Hotch twice, Jason Gideon teaches History, Kid Fic, Lesbian Emily Prentiss, Not biological though, Panic Attacks, Pansexual Penelope Garcia, Penelope isn't allowed tech, Pretty much all the unsubs are teachers now, Protect the kiddos, Protective Aaron Hotchner, Protective Derek Morgan, Protective JJ, Protective Penelope Garcia, Some of the characters I felt bad for are students as well, Some of the unsubs are students cause I needed more kids, Spencer Reid gets lots of hugs because he needs them, Spencer Reid is traumatized, Spencer is 8 but has more trauma then show Spencer, Spencer is Spacey AF, Still had bullies, Strauss is the social worker, Strict Hotch, Teenage Drama, That's who the Hotchner kids keep fighting, The BAU is his foster children, The Hotchner kids keep getting in trouble, The high school is based off my highschool which was 3000 students so..., Therapy, They are children so no ships, They need it so they get it, This is my stress relief to write, This started as a crack idea, Which means popular kids don't actually exist, Will that be hard? Maybe, kids being kids, religious trauma, this is going to be a RIDE
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:49:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 31,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27257467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MintyBoi/pseuds/MintyBoi
Summary: This was a crack idea I had in the middle of a lecture and ended up filling up ten pages instead of listening to my teacher of:What if Hotch became a foster parent after losing Haley and Jack in child birth?So he had a foster home, but ends up adopting most of the kids that he can.These kids go to school and in this universe all those unsubs the BAU hunts... well now they are the disgruntled teachers, quirks and all. Well some of the unsubs/victims are students.Foyet is the school nurse.I just like Dad Hotch.
Comments: 103
Kudos: 183





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I did a thing, best not talk about the thing.  
> This is the thing.  
> It's exactly what it looks like only a lot less crazy cause as my friend put it even my crack writing sounds serious. This is my crack writing, I was told it wasn't crack enough which was concerning.  
> Oh well, enjoy.  
> My brain is melting.

“You have an open space.” It isn’t a question of whether Hotch will take another child, it is a statement. Strauss’s voice is clear that she has a new placement for him. Elle had aged out in June and left by July, now he has had an empty bed for two months and the foster system had no shortage of children. 

“Yes,” Aaron Hotchner’s voice was careful, he didn’t really like Strauss all that much but he knew that she also viewed him as the best group home to put the most traumatized and troubled kids in. He wasn’t going to change that opinion. 

“We have a new girl, Emily Prentiss, she’s 16. She used to be high class. None of her relatives will take her. She’s already been booted out of four homes in the past three months due to her attitude.” 

“Okay,” Hotch knows how to play this game, he will not be the one to ask her to be placed with him. He will make Strauss ask it, he knows that she hates asking. She prefers the houses that fawn over the “poor child” and then say they can take them in. 

“Mr. Hotchner you know what I’m about to ask,” She sounds exacerbated, she doesn’t want to ask, she just wants him to agree. They both know he will most likely agree.

“Do I?” This is Hotch’s favorite part, pushing Strauss’s buttons while knowing she will never bite the hand that makes her job a little easier.

“Will you take Miss Prentiss?” Strauss sighs out, Hotch smiles slightly in victory. 

“Send over her files, I will get back to you within the hour, thank you Ms. Strauss.”

The moment that Hotch hangs up the phone he can see a notification of an email from Strauss. He can also hear the school bus driving past, without making a stop. He takes a deep breath in through his nose and out through his mouth checking the calendar. Yep today is Monday and Derek should all be getting off that bus. Penelope had rehearsal and so she stays after school, but Derek doesn’t have practice today. There are no messages from the school or from the kids. The phone rings, flashing the principal’s personal number up, the contact name is ‘Client Pr.MC’.

“Aaron Hotchner speaking,” He says into the phone as he picks up, pretending he doesn’t know why the call is happening.

“Mr. Hotchner,” Principal Cruz’s voice sounds done, “Did you know that somehow the automated call to you got canceled? Or at least I’m guessing that’s what happened because you almost always call back and check in. So I would ask you to look into it from your end while I look into it from mine.”

Hotch knows exactly what he's insinuating. Penelope has hacked the school’s system more times than they can prove. Stopping automated calls, changing “unfair” grades, blocking the school calls from Hotch’s phone, and more. Hotch actually bought Principal Cruz the burner phone he was using just so the kid wouldn’t try to block it because it was listed under as a client and she tracked the number back to Hotch. But Hotch needs to keep deniability, that’s how this works so he just responds with, “Of course, but I do not know what you might be referring to.”

Cruz laughs a bit at this, “The call is actually about Derek. He needs to be picked up after his detention. He defended another student by putting himself in between the aggressor and the victim. That would have been fine but then he grabbed the aggressor's hands and twisted them behind his back and kneed him in the face not unlike Miss Elle Greenway use to do.”

Hotch sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “I understand. Is he suspended from the team?”

“Of course he isn’t yet, this is his first strike this year. Only two weeks into the year I might add. He has more restraint then Miss Greenway did last year.” 

Hotch hums an understanding as he opens up his email and glances over Emily’s files while he has the principal on the phone. He already knows he’s going to take her. 

“While we are on the topic of my charges I’m going to be needing to enroll a new one, she’s coming sometime this week.”

Cruz groans slightly, “Why is she getting placed with you and what grade?”

“Don’t worry it’s just her attitude, whatever that means,” Hotch assured jokingly, “11th grade most likely based on age. Though from the looks of it she has been having mostly private tutors up to this point.”

“Send her file in to the secretary when you confirm, we’ll give her a placement test for english, history and math and go from there. Well thank you for the heads up, Derek should be done with his detention at 3 which I know is around when the middle school buses drop off so if you are late know that Gideon is running his detention so no one will care.”

Hotch called Strauss and told her he would take Emily, she would be dropped off tomorrow. Checking his watch it was already 2:54 and he could hear the middle school bus passing along with the door opening. 

“HELLO!” Came JJ’s loud call and the sounds of her and Spencer’s bags hitting the floor. Hotch came out of the kitchen car keys already in hand. 

“Into the car we need to go pick up Derek and I’m not leaving you home alone right now,” He instructed.

“How did you know I got in trouble?” JJ asked, “The teacher didn’t even write me up!” 

“You just told me,” Hotch sighed as he herded the two kids to the minivan. Spencer was still quiet as he slipped into his car seat and pulled the buckle down. JJ’s face made a little “oh” expression. Hotch pushed on, “Are you going to tell me what you did or am I going to have to guess?”

“I got put in a group with Michael and Tivon today in history class,” JJ started, Hotch recognized those names as two of the boys who had been giving her a hard time, “And they wouldn’t stop talking in class so I told them to shut the fuck up. Then the teacher yelled at me for talking and when I tried to tell her that they started it she wouldn’t listen and they were laughing at me. Then Michael tried to steal my pencil later, you know the special one that Penny gave me for back to school?”

Hotch hummed that he knew and he pulled off their road heading toward the high school. 

“So I tell him that it’s mine and he tries to play ‘finders keepers’ and Ms. Hallman always favors the guys in the class so she tells me to ‘share’. At the end of class when I try to get my pencil back because I let him use it for the whole class he throws it in the trash. I almost punched him but I didn't. Instead I called him an asshole bully. Then Will pulled it out of the trash and came with a teacher so it didn’t escalate anymore. But see it wasn’t my fault. All his fault.”

“I will admit, Mr. Hastings and Mr. Askari have been giving you a hard time but that doesn’t give you the right to curse at him. Especially before when you were asking them to be quiet, that’s probably why Ms. Hallman called you out over them. I am proud of you not resorting to violence. Did you say thank you to Will?” Hotch tried to reason, he was proud of JJ standing up for herself but he also knew that she needed to do it in a more polite manner. One battle at a time. Spencer was still silent and he was murmuring something quietly that Hotch recognized as a bible verse. That wasn’t good. “Spencer, how was school?”

Spencer looked up like a deer in the headlights and shrank into his seat, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. I don’t like the dark but they kept asking, just kept asking about them and why I wasn’t with them. Don’t put me in the dark. I’m sorry, don’t put me in the dark.” 

Hotch pulled the car over to the side of the road, he should have noticed that Spencer wasn’t good earlier. Spencer’s memory didn’t help when it came to trauma. Turning in his seat he could tell that this had been building most likely since a class, so it was a triggered. “Where did you talk about your parents Spencer?” Hotch tried to keep his voice low, neutral and controlled, next to no emotion.

“Ms. Beckett read us a story about families. Then we had to share about our families. Nathan asked me why I didn’t live with my parents anymore and if my mom was crazy. Honor thy father and thy mother. He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. Honor thy father and thy moth-”

“Spencer,” Hotch interrupted sharply, “I adopted you remember? Your name is now Spencer Reid Hotchner. I am your father now and I promise you, you haven’t done anything wrong. You aren’t going to put in the darkness or die.” 

“I haven’t done anything” Came Spencer’s small reply. 

Hotch smiled at the boy, he wanted to reach back and offer comfort but he knew better to touch Spencer in this state, “That’s right Spencer, you haven’t done anything. You’re okay, you’re good.”

They arrive to the school at 3:13, good time considering Hotch had had to stop. Derek was waiting out front with Gideon. Gideon waved to Hotch as he gave Derek a pat on the shoulder and walked off towards his own car. Derek opened up the passenger side door. 

“So how did you know? How much do you know?” Derek asked as he got in. 

“How about you tell me the story first and I’ll tell you any details that aren’t adding up,” Hotch responded, he had learned quickly that kids were like witnesses best way to get the full story was to not tell them anything until they told you “everything”. 

Derek looked like he knew too, “Dad,” Derek only called him dad when he was trying to get out of something, “I was just protecting Chris Summers from Randal Slade, usually they get along tentatively but Slade was was harassing Summers about not doing enough and how he was going to fail Comp Sci now. He had pinned Summers by the throat against the wall, so I pushed them apart and I’m a little too big for Slade to hold up against the wall so he went to punch me so I did the move that Elle showed me before she left. Nothing would have come out of it if it wasn’t in front of a security camera. Then Foyet was terrible as always in the nurse’s office, he pretty much refused to look at Summers and exclusively looked at Slade. Then Principal Cruz came in and got each of our statements, Penny told me that she would cover for me. Obviously that didn’t work.” 

“See,” Hotch said as they pulled onto their street, “I didn’t know the kids involved or the exact situation. I especially didn’t know that Penelope did this to cover for you and it wasn’t just left over from the last time she did something like this.” 

Derek’s face turned to terror and JJ in the back seat laughed, “Busted!”

Hotch glanced in the mirror as he pulled into the driveway and turned off the car, “Don’t think you are completely in the clear either. Spencer you are my only good child today. I’ll take it 25 percent is better than 0. Homework first when you get in, no one except Spencer is going anywhere other than the kitchen until after dinner.” 

JJ and Derek groaned while Spencer followed quietly behind. Hotch decided he needed to take Spencer off to a different room, “Guys please get working, I’ll be back in a sec to see that you are actually working.” 

Bringing Spencer into the family room he grabbed a book of poems by T.S. Elliot, patting the space next to him Spencer climbed up and settled in. There was just a rigid centimeter separating them, if Hotch shifted they would be touching but that was Spencer’s decision. Hotch started reading the poems out loud until about a half hour later when Spencer had relaxed into his side. Hotch smiled and put the book away, he carefully rubbed Spencer’s arm, “There we go bud, all good. Homework time?” 

Spencer hummed in agreement and got off the couch and headed towards his backpack in the hall while Hotch made his way to the kitchen knowing Spencer would be okay for now. JJ and Derek were working quietly, they probably had just heard the footsteps and stopped whatever game they were playing if the half hidden tic-tac-toe sheet was anything to go by. Spencer came in with his own homework already half finished. The rest of the afternoon was a quiet affair, Spencer left a few times to get books and when JJ and Derek finished their work Hotch gave them chores to do, Hotch worked on dinner and his new case.

When the door opened at 6:30 announcing Penelope’s arrival with a loud and cheery, “Hello wondrous people!” 

Hotch simply called back, “Kitchen now! We need to talk about phonecalls and dinner.”

Penelope slunk in, “Oh, I have no idea to what you might be referring bossman.”

“Penelope, I have systems set up with Cruz to make sure I always get a message if something seems off. I know you didn’t block the number this time because the request was canceled. Don’t let it happen again. Everything else we will talk about at dinner, please set the table.”

Dinner was a fidgety affair, Hotch knew it was mean that he was having them sweat. Asking them about their classes and what homework they got. Finally he announced, “I have two announcements tonight. We are going to be getting a new person living here starting tomorrow. Her name is Emily Prentiss, she will be staying in Elle’s old room and is 16. Please be welcoming, but we are having a quiet dinner tomorrow night. Spencer if you want to go read now you can.” The young boy looked like he had a thousand questions but also knew a dismissal from the table, he grabbed the book he had brought earlier and darted off. “My next announcement is what is going to happen for what each of you did. JJ seeing as you actually showed restraint but still used bad language, please do the dishes for tonight. Penelope and Derek you are accomplices in each other’s problems. Good for sticking together but not in this way. You both have to clean the bathrooms this week and be in charge of getting the room ready for Emily: sheets, pillows, blankets, along with notebooks and school supplies. Sound fair?”

“No,” JJ piped up and Derek shot her a look, “Derek and I had to do more chores when we came home from school but Penny didn’t have to do any because she was at practice. Penny should have to do more chores.” 

Penelope looked like she wanted the anything else and she hissed, “JJ why?”

“JJ you make a good point, how about Penelope helps you with the dishes?” Hotch suggested, both girls nodded their consent, “All good then. This is only the first offense of the year so we are pretending that y’all have no previous record. Understood?”

“Yes Hotch,” They chorused back. 

Hotch nodded and got up from the table, he headed towards his office he really needed to get more work done if he was going to be occupied with a new kid for the rest of the week. He ran his office out of the house so that he could do all his work at the house and make his own hours. Between the hours of 9 and 10 p.m. each kid came in to say good night, he knew that they weren’t all going to sleep but simply letting him know that they were ‘off for the night’. He knew if he went into: Spencer’s room the boy would be reading with a flashlight, Penelope’s room the girl would be texting and watching animal videos, Derek’s room the boy would be drawing out plans for houses and game plays for football, JJ’s room would have the girl quietly practicing her dance stretches. Thinking of JJ reminded him that she had try outs for soccer on Saturday. 

He said goodnight to a quiet house and locked the door at 1 a.m. and fell into his bed. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily comes whoop!

Emily looked at the house, it was nicer looking and in a better neighborhood than the last home she had been in. Clean cut American suburban dream home, she knew that it was a single foster-parent here, a man named Aaron Hotchner. She also knew that he was most likely the home where they sent the extreme problem kids to. She had made sure she was an extreme problem child, she wanted the system to know how mad she was. The system wasn’t made for kids like her, she should have been allowed to keep her tutors and staff as guardians and just lived on the estate. Instead she was getting thrown around homes and wasn’t going to be able to see her home again for two years and on top of that she would have to go to public school most likely, unless this parent sent them to catholic school, Emily had hated going to catholic school for that one semester in sixth grade. 

Ms. Strauss was knocking on the door again and checking her watch, “Hotchner!”

“Strauss!” The man responded as he opened the door, “I’m sorry again Mr. Luiz can I call you back in an hour, yes I know your case is important. Yes I am working on it but the social worker just arrived with my newest kid. No I’m not lying, do you want to speak to the social worker? Her name is Erin Strauss and she’s a real tough one, so I really have to go. Yes within the hour, yep, goodbye now. Hello Ms. Strauss, hello Miss Emily Prentiss.”

As he hung up the phone Emily noticed that he looked every part of the suburban dream, she wondered where his pretty wife was. Then she realized something else with sinking dread, this would be the perfect place for a pedo to hide in plain sight. Who would believe a problem child over Mr. Perfect Business with his suburban home and philanthropy taking in foster kids. The entire situation looked a lot more ominous and the man’s warm smile made her want to run. 

“I assume she is taking Elle Greenway’s old room?” Strauss inquired, the man was still blocking off from them entering. Emily wanted to bolt, everything felt too good. 

“Yes she is, Derek and Penelope set it all up last night, did you want to see if it’s up to standards or do you just want to get in your car and leave,” There was a slight challenge in his easy confidence and it made a shiver go up Emily’s spine.

“I’ll trust you, I’ll be around in a month though to check in if there aren’t any calls sooner,” Strauss responded, Emily wanted to plead with her to search the house with her, she didn’t know why. 

“Of course, you won’t be getting any calls before then. Come on in Emily, I’ll take one of your bags if you would like?” 

Emily handed him one of her three bags silently. She had never finished unpacking at the last house, she wasn’t planning on unpacking here. She would get him to call and send her off before the end of the month. Though she might wait until she could get to the public highschool and score. Public schools were always decent but risky when getting drugs but she hadn’t had anything for weeks now. Maybe get kicked to a different home due to drugs, yeah that sounded like a good plan. She followed the man into the house and up the stairs the door closing behind her. They got to a white door in a hallway of white doors all cracked open slightly. He pushed the door open, inside was a twin bed with soft gray sheets and a red comforter, a desk with ten notebooks neatly stacked next to a strange assortment of pens and pencils and then some sticky notes and a planner, there was also a dresser and a full length mirror. 

“Okay Emily we are going to go over some base rules and then you are going to have until dinner or whenever someone comes in to pester you to unpack. Though I did tell them to wait till dinner,” Mr. Hotchner pulled the desk chair out and sat in it. 

‘Here come the catches,’ Emily thought. 

“First rule is respect, respect yourself, the house and the people living in the house. Please also respect the people living outside the house but I have less control about the rules there. Second rule is report, I need to know what you are doing, if you are going out with friends, if you got into a fight, if you joined a club, if you did your chores, anything that is going on that affects the schedule I need reported. Third rule is responsibility, I expect you to keep your stuff contained to your room or at least clean up your own messes, do your assigned chores for the week and do homework, I also expect the truth and take responsibility for your actions. Fourth rule is honesty, just tell me the truth if I ask it, I’m reasonable and I’ve seen everything, if you are lying and I find out it is guaranteed to be worse then if you didn’t just originally fess up. Fifth rule is help, if you need help come to me, I don’t care what kind of trouble you can always come to me, if you need psychiatric help we can get you set up with a therapist, all the kids here currently see therapists in varying degrees, the person in this room before you also saw a therapist, no one will think less of you if you ask for help.” 

Emily sat silently on the bed through the rules, they felt too loose but also seemed to encompass all the areas where she had been able to get away with things before. It made her feel even more uncomfortable, especially that last rule. Asking for help was not something she did. It made her wonder if she came to him high if that would actually get him to call Strauss. 

“So that’s it?” Emily asked, picking at her chipping black nail polish.

“For now yes, we’ll go over the nitpicky rules at dinner tonight with everyone so they can help remind me of anything I forgot. I’ll let you unpack if you need me I’ll be downstairs down the hall to the left, big wooden door. Feel free to explore but please don’t leave the house without telling me. Also feel free to call me Aaron, Hotchner, Hotch or any version of father/mother whatever you're comfortable with.”

“Okay, Aaron,” Emily said, testing the name, it sounded wrong, she would figure out what all the other kids called him first. 

Aaron Hotchner disappeared from the room leaving the door cracked just like all the other rooms. Emily immediately fully closed it. That’s when she realized he had never touched or gotten unnecessarily close to her, he hadn’t even offered a handshake. Just had waved at her. 

She grabbed one of the notebooks and the most normal looking pencil, it was still bright purple and just wrote and drew. Eventually she took a nap and woke to the sound of the front door opening and closing, interested to see the other kids she opened the door and looked down the stairs to the front entrance. The kid couldn’t have been more than 8 years old with a mop of brown curls, his backpack looked like it weighed as much as him. She accidently stepped on a squeaky stair and his head snapped up to meet her eyes. 

“Hello,” She said, giving him a little wave, “Sorry I don’t know your name.”

“Spencer Reid Hotchner, are you Emily Prentiss right? You're replacing Elle,” The voice was soft and Emily noticed that this kid must have been fully adopted. She didn’t know why but she wanted to protect him by just wrapping him up in blankets and hiding him from the world. 

“I’m not replacing anyone,” She decided to respond instead, she needed to stay harsh and not make friends regardless of how cute they were. 

“Elle aged out of the system and left the house, her room was then made available and Strauss knowing that arranged you to fill the empty bed therefore you are replacing Elle.”

Emily had not been expecting an explanation and it also made her feel annoyed that he was referring to her as a replacement. She wasn’t anyone’s “replacement” no matter who slept there before. 

“Spencer?” Hotchner came down the hall, he had most likely heard the exchange, “Hey buddy, how was school today? Also Emily is right, she’s not a replacement she’s her own person. You have therapy in an hour and Rossi agreed to drive you, is that okay?”

The kid seemed slightly overwhelmed by the amount of different questions but Emily noticed that by throwing the statement between the two questions it made it feel softer. 

“Good, Maeve, Ethan and I got to hide out in the library during lunch and we read about the mitochondria. Did you know that mitochondrial DNA is passed down materially and when cells split they don’t replicate the mitochondria because the mitochondria used to be its own cell so it goes through its own replication while in the cells. Also it makes energy that helps power the rest of the cell and the process-” 

Hotchner cut Spencer off with a raised hand, “That’s great, you okay with Rossi taking you to therapy? Please talk about yesterday when you go.”

Spencer just nodded, “Okay and Mr. Rossi is amazing. He's teaching me some italian that he remembers.” 

“Okay, well I need to get back to my client so please be ready for Rossi when he comes.”

Emily realized as Hotchner went back down the hall and out of view that he had completely ignored her. Spencer’s gaze went back to her, “Do you know about the mitochondria?”

Emily snorted, “Yeah the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.” She moved from her step and retreated back into the room. She wondered where the other kids were, from what she knew elementary schools usually got out last. 

Emily didn’t leave her room again just listening as doors opened and closed and different voices came muffled through. At 6:50 a soft knock came on her door and a female voice said, “Hi just want to let you know you have ten minutes till Hotch calls us for dinner, don’t want to be late.”

Emily didn’t respond and she could hear light retreating footfalls. Dinner, she knew she would be expected to be there and she hadn’t eaten lunch when Strauss had offered it earlier so she was getting hungry. She wondered if Hotch cooked or if it was microwave T.V. dinners to finish the suburban home feel without a wife. She responded to the call purposely waiting a few minutes after it came to head downstairs, not caring that her eyeliner was probably smudged and she was now late.

There was an empty spot at the table in between two blondes, she realized the table was round so there was really no “head” of the table as Hotchner sat down next to an african-american boy. Spencer sat between one of the blondes and the other boy. Dinner was already on the plate, mac and cheese with a side of peas. 

“Emily I didn’t know what you like to drink,” Hotchner said. Emily decided to push his buttons,

“I like wine though I don’t mind vodka or beer,” She responded.

“That’s nice,” He responded, not missing a beat, “Do you think you can handle milk or water instead for tonight and we can get you set up with AA if there’s a problem.” 

That was not the reaction she was expecting and the way none of the kids reacted told her that he was serious. 

“I go to NA meetings sometimes, there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Spencer piped up quietly from his seat, “And Derek used to go to AA meetings.”

The boy next to Hotchner, Derek, Emily assumed, shot Spencer a look.

“Spencer remember it is not nice to share other people’s personal information without permission. Especially when it is a sensitive topic,” Hotchner said in that ever calm voice. Emily would think about how to get him to stop using that voice if she hadn’t just learned this tiny child was or used to be an addict. She wondered if it was one of those circumstances where a junkie uses when pregnant, she had heard about those cases when she took a mandatory health and safety course. 

“Emily milk or water?” Hotchner asked again as Spencer mumbled apologies. 

“Water,” She got out, she was feeling less confident about her plan to escape by the second. This man was right, he had seen everything. 

The younger blonde on her left grabbed her glass and filled it from the tap, Emily was disgusted she wouldn’t drink tap water. She had heard the horrors and diseases in tap and public drinking water. 

“Okay let's go around and introduce ourselves with name, age, how long you’ve been here and grade,” Hotch announced, clapping his hands. Everyone except Derek started to eat.

“Derek Hank Morgan Hotchner, uh 15, 4, and 10th.” Once he finished he started eating, Emily noticed that he also shared the last name, she wondered if he was also fully adopted. He gently had prodded Spencer.

“Spencer Reid Hotchner, 8 years, 10 months and 10 days years old, I arrived here 3 years, 7 months, 4 days, 5 hours and 14 minutes ago, I’m in a mix of 6th and 7th grade simultaneously.” None of the other kids had any reaction to the overly detailed timestamp, Emily couldn’t help but hide her surprise as she almost choked on a bite of mac and cheese, which was impressively good, at both the kid’s grade and level to detail for the time. 

The blonde to her right didn’t miss a beat, “Hi! I’m Penelope Grace Garcia, though most call me Penny, goddess of all things technical, I’m 14, been with these wonderful people for 3 years now and I’m a freshman.”

Emily nodded and then turned to her left, waiting for her to introduce herself.

“Emily you first,” Hotchner said in that still too calm voice. 

“Oh, I’m Emily Lauren Prentiss, I’m 16, been here for a couple hours and I believe by american school standards I would be in 11th grade,” That was the most personal information she had spoken since she got there. She didn’t like how unsure she sounded. This whole house was throwing her off. 

The girl to her left then spoke, “Jennifer Josie Jaraeu, but call me JJ, 12 years old and in 7th grade.” Emily noticed that both the boys had been adopted but the girls hadn’t, interesting she wondered if that was Hotchner’s preference. 

“Oh Emily,” Hotchner said, not letting her mull over her thoughts, “I forgot to ask if you were religious incase you wanted to pray before eating.” Derek and Spencer stopped eating and both seemed to tense under the question. 

Thoughts of Matt, John and her time at catholic school popped into her head, “I’m not religious.” She watched as the boys both relaxed some and continued with their food. ‘They hadn’t had a good time with organized religion either,’ she thought. 

“Okay so it’s the beginning of the school year and we have a new face in the house so we are going to go over all the nit-picky rules as a reminder. Who would like to start?”

Derek immediately makes eye contact with Emily, “No alcohol in the house, only exception is Hotch’s scotch. Drug tests will be done once a month or if suspected for using. If you are high contact Hotch so he can get you sober and safe.” 

“All jokes about suicide or self-harm will be taken seriously. Do not make them, find a better way to say what you mean. If you have a problem or someone says something, talk it out with Hotch or another trusted person. Don’t get into fights,” JJ piped up next, she fidgeted with her necklace. Emily realized this was probably her trigger and why she got put here, she wondered who died or if JJ had tried herself. 

“Get chores and homework done in a timely manner and do them well,” Garcia said cutting the tension of the weight of the past two statements, “If you can't get your tasks done, maybe you can’t be doing as many afterschool things or hang out with friends. If you are having problems with workload talk to Hotch for figuring out how to tweak the schedule to be better suited.”

Every rule included Hotchner, or Hotch as the other kids called him, Emily realized, they all depended on him in a way she had never been able to depend on an adult. Her mother had always been too busy and the tutors and servants all had their jobs. She also didn’t like the sound of chores, she had never had to clean in her life and she wasn’t planning on starting now. 

“Stick together,” Spencer’s voice was soft, “Protect each other.” When Emily looked over she could see Derek giving him a little pat on the back. After he spoke there was a silence as the kids finished eating. No one got up from the table though.

“Y’all forgot a rule,” Hotch said, “You forgot that punculatity is required. Tardiness will be treated as if you have disappeared, if you cannot be found within an hour authorities will be involved.” 

Emily was surprised by this, it seemed a little harsh and vague, but she guessed it made sense in a house full of kids that might try to run. If she decided to run she would only have an hour. 

“Your all dismissed for whatever else you need to get done for the night, Emily if you stay so we can go over the schedule.” The kids immediately all jumped up and scattered, “Penelope, Derek don’t forget you have bathrooms this week now!”

Emily continued to sit trying to get her bearings as Hotch picked up the empty plates from the table and rinsed them in the sink before putting them in the dishwasher. 

“You don’t mind if I do the dishes while we talk? If you would like to help you can dry,” He picked up an empty pot and started to fill it with sudsy water. 

“I don’t do chores,” Emily decide to say.

“Mhmm, well now you will,” Hotch said in a voice that sounded like it was agreeing, “I know this is a lot of change but honestly I don’t know why you got marked down for attitude, would you enlighten me?”

“No, figure it out yourself.”

“Ah, refusal to comply most likely due to being catered to for so long. On top of that your ‘rudeness’” he made air quotes with his wet hands, “is just a shield to protect you from your trauma. Are you interested in seeing a therapist?”

“No. I don’t need a shrink and you know nothing.”

Hotch chuckled at that, “If you change your mind do let me know and we will add it to your schedule. Now about the schedule, the rest of this week will be strange so we’ll go over that after. Your color on the calendar will be green or orange, do you have a preference?”

“Green.” She hated the color orange. 

“Okay, anything you do that takes time outside of the school day will be marked on the calendar in green. Personal things such as projects or homework will be recorded in a personal planner if you wish but do not go on the calendar. Parties or outings with friends that are pre-planned go on the calendar. Understood?”

Emily just gave a small noise of acceptance.

“First wake up call is at 5:50. Breakfast is served by 6:05, except on weekends where it is served at 7:30. Bus for high school comes to pick up at the end of the street at 6:35. First class at the highschool is 7:20. Last bell is at 2. Dinner is at 7 every night unless there is an event, then it will be in relation to the event. On weekends or days off from school lunch is a have when you want it affair with leftovers or sandwiches. Lunch at school can either be the free lunch program or I can make you a bagged lunch in the morning, but I need to know by 6 which you want for that day. Still with me?”

This time he turned around drying his hands on a towel. She gave him a curt nod, like she used to give her mother when she lectured her. 

“Disruptions to the schedule are taken very seriously. If you are supposed to be somewhere or are late you aren’t just messing up your schedule, you're messing up everyone’s schedule. I am serious about if we can’t find you after an hour that we call authorities. For Spencer we had to make that into an hour and half, if you give me reason that time will be applied to you as well. You can have your privacy, you can have your own time but I do need to know where you are and that you are safe. Do you have any questions for me?”

“Why did you only adopt the boys?” Emily asks, she’s interested and wants to throw Hotchner off his game.

“I originally only adopted Spencer because it helped with his trauma, having a physical thing that he could connect to a parental figure that couldn’t be taken away. Derek asked me if I would adopt him too when I was adopting Spencer. Penelope is legally my child as well, but she didn’t want to change her name. JJ’s mom has had custody taken away but is fighting for it back so I can’t fully adopt JJ for those reasons.”

“Was Elle adopted?”

“Elle refused to be adopted and she only lived here for a year and half. She didn’t like the idea of being attached to anyone permanently. Although even though she claims she cut all ties I know she hasn’t.” 

“Will I be adopted?”

“Do you want to be adopted?” He countered, she didn’t know, that made her uneasy.

“What do you do for work?”

“I’m a lawyer.” Everything made sense, how calm he was, how he was able to keep turning her questions the way he stated things.

“Do I have to go to public school?”

“Yes, if you have too many problems we can look into alternatives however by problems they can’t be made just to get out of it. Believe me I can tell.” She believed him. Why did she believe him? Why did she want to trust him?

“Why does Spencer have to go to NA meetings?”

“I’m sure you can figure that out but that’s for him to tell if he wants to, however I would suggest you be extremely careful what questions you ask people. But knowing that you do not yet respect me please know that if you ask a question that results in a panic response to get me and do not touch the person. Please repeat that last part back so I know your listening.”

Emily realized this was a rule, something that Hotch didn’t directly say but everyone knew, “If someone’s panicking get you and don’t touch them.”

“Anymore questions, if not we are going to talk about the plan for the rest of the week.” 

Emily just shook her head, this house felt so structured and secure she didn’t know if she would be able to fit in. She hated that she wanted to fit in, to find out everyone’s stories. 

“Good, tomorrow I have you set up with Principal Cruz to take placement tests and figure out your class schedule. I’ll drop you off around 10 and pick you up at 1, if you're done sooner the secretary will call me. Please take it seriously unless you want to go back to freshman year or get put on special reading programs and have less freedom.”

Emily almost snorted at that, there was no freedom here. Hotchner ran too tight of a ship for that. He gave her a nod and she assumed she was dismissed, she didn’t move. She wanted to know what he would do. He just finished drying the dishes, hung up the towel and walked out of the room. She felt silly still sitting at the table and got up, she wanted to explore around but she also didn’t want to run into anyone. Maybe tomorrow when everyone was at school.

Turns out avoiding everyone wasn’t going to happen, they were waiting for her in a loose circle at the top of the stairs, each working on something different just waiting. Derek was throwing a ball up and down, Spencer reading, Penelope was scribbling away in a notebook and JJ was calmly doing what appeared to be math homework. 

“Don’t you all have anything better to do?” Emily questioned.

“Nope!” Penelope said brightly popping the ‘p’, “We got all our stuff done earlier because Hotch told us we couldn’t bother you before dinner so we made sure after dinner was free.” 

Emily crossed her arms over her chest, “And what if I don’t want to?”

Derek smirked, “Well that’s too bad isn’t it, you came into our house and now we need to figure out whether we ask Hotch to move you. He won’t take our opinions until two weeks in but we can start now.”

“You already have negative 3 noodle points,” Penelope added.

Emily was expecting some sort of orientation or group jump just from how close and how insync all the kids had been, also how long they had been there. She had no clue what noodle points were. So she decided to keep being defensive, “Excuse me? Noodle points?”

“Noodle points is a system that Penelope made up to qualify acts and decide whether the house currently likes or dislikes a person as a whole. Hotch is excluded from noodle points mainly because if we tried it wouldn’t be fair and he is pretty much the house. Doing things that cause stress to the house gets negative points, doing things that makes the house happy or decreases stress is positive points. Penelope runs the tallies but everyone can add or detract points as long as it isn’t from their column and they are being fair,” Spencer said in a single breath and then took a deep inhale. 

“How did I already get negative 3, I haven’t done anything!” Emily didn’t like the fact that these people had a point system that she was already losing. 

Derek gestured towards Spencer again as if permission. Spencer’s eyes lit up and he held up five fingers, “Two are for being late for dinner especially after JJ told you it would be soon and Hotch called you down. Last one is purposely trying to antagonize Hotch during dinner, it wasn’t nice and you need to honor-”

“Spencer stop,” JJ’s voice was clear cut almost harsh, “Don’t do that right now.”

“Do what?” Emily asked, trying to push, “Honor Hotch? Honor your parents? Isn’t that some bible bul-” 

“Don’t say another word,” Came a low growl from Derek, then he turned to Spencer who was sitting and looking more zoned out by the second, “Spencer, hey pretty boy, have you finished War and Peace yet?”

“No, not yet,” Spencer’s voice sounded like he wasn’t completely present. 

“How about you finish War and Peace yeah? Figure out if you like Tolstoy or Melville better,” Derek gave the boy a slight nudge which Spencer responded with a flinch like he had just been punched, Derek quickly retreated. Spencer seemed much more present.

“Nice to meet you Emily,” he said, “But I think I’m going to go read, have a nice night.” 

“Good night,” She said her voice thick with confusion. She watched the small boy disappear behind one of the white doors and it clicked shut.

“See that gets you a good noodle point!” Penelope said, flipping to a page in the notebook and marking it down with a green pen. 

“Is he okay?” Emily asked.

None of the kids answered her or met her eye. JJ piped up quietly, “He’ll be okay, he’s a survivor.”

Emily didn’t think that answered the question but she wasn’t going to press. 

“How about this? We play never had I ever,” Emily volunteered sitting down finally. 

“Okay,” Penelope agreed, “But we are playing with all ten fingers. First person down has to volunteer to do the dishes tomorrow night, without telling Hotch they lost a bet.”

Everyone nodded and raised two hands in the air all ten fingers displayed. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Never Have I Ever and they all go for the throat cause Spencer isn't there to fuss over. Or Emily burns more bridges. 
> 
> Spencer is the no fight zone of the house.

Emily knew they were going to be trying to find out her history with the questions so she decided all questions were on the table. She decided she would start going straight for the throat. “Never have I ever seen a dead body that wasn’t at a funeral.”

JJ and Derek both put down fingers, interesting. Derek shot her another glare and it was his term, “Never have I ever smoked.”

Emily put her finger down, none of the other kids did. 

“Never have I ever had servants.”

Emily put her finger down.

“Never have I ever had private education.”

Emily put her finger down, fuming they just hit her three times and she learned nothing but they got to see her as a rich girl now. 

“Never have I ever not left the country,” Emily knew it was shot in the dark but if these kids did come from low income there was a possibility, she felt a shot of pride when all three put fingers down. 

“Never have I ever left the country,” Derek countered back. 

Emily put a finger down with a snort, “Lame.”

“Never have I ever been drunk,” Penelope said, then her face fell, “Wait sorry-”

“It’s fine she probably figured out with the AA comment,” Derek said as he put down a finger. Emily followed suit. 

“Never have I ever been fluent in a language that isn’t english?” JJ said, shrugging her shoulders.

Emily put down a finger, so did Penelope. Emily wondered what language she knew. 

“Never have I ever gone to therapy,” Emily said, she knew it was another low blow and she only knew it from Hotch but she wanted to get them down as much as possible, she knew she wouldn’t win.

Three fingers went down.

“Never have I ever had consensual sex,” Derek said, Penelope shot him a look. Emily realized that one of them must have been raped. She put a finger down and tried not to think of John and her abortion. 

“Never have I ever gone more than a week without seeing my legal guardian.”

Emily put her finger down so did JJ. 

“Never have I ever had a dead parent,” JJ hissed back at her. This is what Emily wanted to see, even if she had to put her finger down. Where were other people’s traumas. Derek and Penelope shot her a look and put down their own fingers. 

She now had 9 fingers down, she knew that Derek would knock her out, this was her last chance to figure out where people stood. She wanted to go out with a bang, ‘ask about suicide’ her brain supplied. What she ended up saying was something that got her excommunicated for the rest of the week. “Never have I ever been touched by Hotchner inappropriately.”

No fingers went down but the look of fury in all three of their eyes told her she just stepped on a landmine. Next thing she knew each kid got up and went behind their own white doors. 

“Negative 5 noodle points now,” was the only thing said. Derek’s door actually slammed. Emily found herself sitting on the floor in the hallway just like she sat in the chair in the kitchen, alone and feeling foolish. 

Sleep found her easily, she hadn’t realized how emotionally exhausted she was as she sunk into the bed in the room that Hotchner had told her could be hers. She wondered if it could be.

The 5:50 wake up call was no joke. A knock and her light was flicked on, “Wake up, breakfast in 15.” 

Emily groaned, she didn’t even have school today why did she have to get up? She almost wanted to see if she could test the limits but the thought of food motivated her to drag herself up. 

She dressed in her normal all black attire and was thankful for the mirror in the room so that she could do her makeup, without having to brave whatever bathroom situation happened in the morning. She could hear shouts and doors opening and closing, a shower being run and the screams of “Derek get the hell out!” with a muffled reply. Feet were already thumping down the stairs as well, she decided to brave it. 

Breakfast would have been fine, the options were eggs or cereal. She chose eggs and Spencer the only one already downstairs poured himself a bowl of overly sugary cereal. The problems arose when Derek and Penelope made their entrances followed shortly after by JJ a towel still around her hair. 

“Morning Hotch, morning Spencer,” Derek said, ignoring Emily’s presence. The two girls followed suit.

Hotch noticed this and immediately frowned glancing between all the kids. None met his eye. 

“Morning all, who needs a bagged lunch? Raise your hands.”

All the hands shot up, Hotch just nodded and got to work making sandwiches. 

“Can you please remember to cut it into triangles?” Spencer piped up from his bowl or almost completely finished cereal. 

“Of course kiddo,” Hotch responded, “How did everyone sleep?”

A chorus of goods came back to him, though so did a few yawns. 

“Spencer did you sleep?”

“I finished War and Peace.”

“Did you sleep?”

“I think I got about 3 hours.” The poor boy sounded nervous like Hotch was going to explode.

“Spencer do I have to confiscate your books after 10 pm again?” The man asked, JJ and Penelope had finished eating and were clearing their places. Derek looked almost guilty.

“It’s my fault Hotch,” Derek said, “I told him to go finish War and Peace because he got stressed.” 

“Thank you for telling me Derek but Spencer can still make his own decisions.” 

Spencer was clearing his place to and slipping from the room, Derek following close behind. Hotch sighed and finished packing the last lunch. Emily realized that they had practically ignored her existence again. She wasn’t used to being ignored like this. Hotch was looking at the calendar when he spoke to her.

“Emily, remember we are going to the high school at 10. You might have to have to get a ride home with Mr. Rossi, he’s one of the english teachers, though. I’ll call the main office if that happens. Okay?”

“Okay,” She agreed. She looked at her half finished plate. She could hear the rest of the kids getting ready still. Running around and calling back and forth to each other in a frenzy to get ready for the buses. She decided she had a question, “When does the middle school bus come?”

Hotch looked up from his own breakfast of coffee and toast, “7:10. School starts at 7:50.” 

“Why are they up so early then?”

“Just makes it easier to do everyone at once. JJ likes it because then she can do her morning stretches and Spencer likes getting up early anyway. Though sometimes it's because he didn’t sleep.”

Emily could sense that the conversation was over as Hotch cleared away his place.

“Oh and Emily?”

Emily looked up, the conversation wasn’t over then.

“Whatever happened last night to make them dislike you, if you get in Spencer's good book you’re automatically put in all of their good books. He’s not as hard to get along with as it might seem either.” 

Emily could recognize advice well enough. She decided it couldn’t hurt to try, even if she didn’t want to stay here having no one to talk to would be worse, especially if Hotch seemed convinced she would be here at least a month. 

Wandering into a room with a TV, lots of bookcases and couches, an electric piano was against one wall and the official adoption records were framed under some family photos, she found Spencer reading  The Jungle . 

“That’s a tough read right?” She asks, trying to make conversation. She knows its a dumb question she just heard the kid had read  War and Peace. Surprisingly his face lights up.

“Penelope said I should read it so I can decide if I want to become a vegetarian with her. Although Hotch won’t let her become a full vegetarian until she’s 16. I’m going to be in college by then, also while the book is interesting I don’t think I’m going to stop eating meat over it,” Spencer tells her, the book is still open and she realizes that he is already a fourth of the way through. 

“That’s really cool, I like your socks,” Emily noticed that he had two different colored socks. One has dinosaurs the other is bats. 

“My mom always said matched socks were bad luck, the last time I wore matched socks I had two broken bones in my foot and three fractures on other bones in that leg. Also I got branded. I started to go barefoot to make sure I wasn’t getting good luck or bad luck. But then they forced me to wear matched socks again and I almost died. I don’t, I don’t-”

Emily realized she accidentally hit one of this kid’s numerous triggers and traumas, she didn’t want to be in deeper shit with everyone because of this kid. Panicking she asked the first question that came to mind, “Hey Spencer, do you speak any other languages?”

He still looked unfocused as he responded, “I can understand most languages and I just read War and Peace in the original russian. I find that stories are better in their native language. Dr. Blake has taught me Spanish, ASL and some Latin. We are working on my Mandarin now and Mr. Rossi is slowly teaching me conversational Italian.” By the end he seemed more with the conversation again, “Do you know any other languages?”

Emily smiled, “Yeah, I speak Spanish, French, Italian and Arabic. My Russian isn’t very good but I can understand it.”

Spencer nodded enthusiastically, he looked like an eager puppy with his brown curls flopping all over, “I can understand but not speak Russian and German. Did you know that when a child is young and their brain is still developing it is the best time to learn a language? It will imprint more and it is easier to pick up.”

Emily nodded along, she hadn’t even noticed that she had now perched herself on the arm of the couch. Spencer was more than happy to talk to her about anything she could ask, if it was almost impersonal. She learned he was the color purple on the calendar because it was his favorite color and the color for this part of his life. When she tried to ask him what that meant he started to fidget and seem uncomfortable. When JJ yelled for Spencer to get to the bus, Emily hadn’t even realized they had been talking for a half hour. Spencer gave her a little wave as he jumped off the couch and ran out the door, leaving Emily sitting in an empty room. It was starting to feel like a theme in this house, her sitting with no one after everyone left. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a Derek goes through high school chapter. You learn nothing except how many criminal minds characters I am fitting in here.   
> Also in my document where I write the story the chapters are labeled c1,c2,c3,c4 and C4 being an explosive felt right for a Derek chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I write a schedule that was practically my schedule 10th grade and make them teach exactly what my teachers taught 10th grade? Maybe. Did I base almost everyone of these characters off an unsub and a real teacher I had? Also maybe.

Derek was angry. The new girl had no right to say that about Hotch. She didn’t know anything, he knew she wasn’t completely blameless in the situation. They all knew that nothing good would come out of that game especially when it was practically three to one. To make it worse it was only Wednesday and there wasn’t training this week. He had chemistry first period with Mr. Hill and had already pinned Mr. Hill as an erratic teacher. One of those teachers that you could push slightly for a better grade but you would also have to teach most of the subject to yourself if you actually wanted to know it. The tests would be a nightmare, unless he stole them from another teacher and you had taught yourself the material. He had heard that Hill’s degree was highly questionable and was gotten via cut corners. Mr. Lewis had almost blown up at him two years ago when he had first come and kept coming in to ask for help teaching while class was in session. Chemistry first thing wasn’t terrible because Derek could zone out. 

“Derek? Derek Hotchner?”

Derek shot up, “Yes?”

“I was just asking if anyone could tell me what a noble gas was or an example of one?” A few people in the class threw him a sympathetic look or laughed quietly. 

Derek thanked whatever was watching over him that he lived with Spencer and that Spencer loved chemistry (more then all the other subjects he loved), “A noble gas is a gas that has equal protons and electrons making it stable. Examples would be um-” Derek racked his brain of Spencer’s lectures, “helium, neon and argon?”

Mr. Hill seemed slightly miffed that he hadn’t been able to fully throw Derek off, “Very good.”

Derek was going to buy Spencer ice cream this weekend, maybe even the coffee flavored ice cream that Hotch only let Spencer get on occasion. Spencer’s stupid rants and desire to tell Derek everything especially after going to science camp this summer paid off. Derek filed it away to tell Spencer as well, he knew his brother would like the praise. 

The rest of class went smoothly, Derek wasn’t called on again and Mr. Hill continued to give b.s. Explanations before handing out a worksheet on a topic he had only half described. When the bell rang he practically darted out of the class, his next class was across the school and was with one of his best friends, Matt Spicer. 

Ms.Garrett was a strange teacher, not terrible just extremely superstitious and saw the worst in everything. That’s why she became a history teacher so she could warn everyone about how evil men could be. Today was no different, it was only the second week of school and she was already having them start on the Hiroshima bombings and their affects on Japanese society. Derek only half listened, it was times like this that he wished he kept his birth last name because right now he was two rows over from Matt but Russel Montgomery, Monty as everyone called him, was directly next to Matt. Derek kind of knew Monty because he was one of Penelope’s best friends. But this was why they were learning morse code, so that they could talk in classes regardless of where they were in the room to each other. Spencer was helping them, because Spencer had looked at it once and learned it for life. 

That was the other thing that Derek had realized about Ms.Garrett, she was a lecturer and a document shower. That meant the whole class was dark except for the powerpoint where she would display copies of primary sources ask what they meant, take one hand and then explain the document herself. Derek didn’t mind this that much, except the fact that he didn’t want to fall asleep in class. Monty finished his coffee and pulled a red bull out of his bag. If Derek wasn’t religious about what he put into his body he would have asked if Monty had more. Matt was asleep. Ms.Garrett drowned on about the justifications made for dropping the bomb. Derek tried to focus and take some notes, he abandoned the notion and decided to figure out what to do with Emily Prentiss instead. He made a list under his notes, pro/con style just like how Ms.Garrett was talking about the bomb.

Pros:

  * Don’t have to pick up Elle’s chores
  * Another one of them in high school
  * We knew the room was going to get filled sooner than later
  * She knows how to fight



Cons:

  * She doesn’t know her place yet
  * She insulted Hotch multiple times
  * She doesn’t understand the house yet
  * She pushes a little too much trying to cause breaks
  * Reclusive and hostile
  * Upsets the schedule



He looked over the list as the lights came on, he realized most the cons were just adjustment cons and if she stuck around would most likely work out. She didn’t know Hotch and she just wanted a rise. She knew how to fight, she was just fighting. Derek decided he would still not talk to her till Friday like he, JJ and Penelope had decided but then he would give her the benefit of the doubt. 

“Hope you're proud of me Hotch,” He muttered under his breath as he started to pack up three minutes before the bell. Ms.Garrett was saying something about how the bell doesn’t dismiss them she does, no one was listening. 

Matt was next to him, “So how was the mystery person?”

“First impressions left a lot to be desired,” Derek responded.

“Penelope was texting me about her,” Monty added.

Derek glanced over to Monty, “How the hell did she get a phone again? Hotch just confiscated the last one not even a week ago.” 

Monty just smiled, “Not going to reveal her secrets.”

“I don’t get why Hotch doesn’t let you all have phones to begin with, everyone pretty much has one,” Matt groaned as the bell rang and they headed towards the door.

“It’s cause Hotch doesn’t want to deal with the damage of Penelope and technology or Spencer and technology. JJ and I are unfortunate casualties. Also the phone bill.”

“Spencer’s a tech genius too?” Matt asked, he had P.E. next and Derek had Transportation Systems so they were heading in the same direction. 

“God no,” Derek laughed, “He breaks any tech he touches. Only thing I think he will never be able to do well.”

“Well you are better at sports,” Matt added as they approached the locker rooms.

“True on that, have fun with Ms.Porter.”

“You know I will, enjoy Mr. Coakley.”

Mr. Coakley was his Transportation Systems teacher. The class was cool and relatively freestyle. His classroom was the auto shop, though the class was just making small scale transportation systems. The class consisted of 25 boys and 2 girls and a lot of power tools. 

“Safety glasses and then we are going over how to use dremels today. Sayer, Heathridge I still need your safety forms signed so you will be sitting out the actual working part but you can still watch the demonstration and your peers.” 

Derek had to respect Mr.Coakley’s ability to keep a hold of the class even from a wheelchair, but he had also heard that the class got really lax once he finished teaching the tools. He wondered if Mr. Coakley relied on the first few weeks of confusion to control his class. His mind floated back to Prentiss and he wondered if her fire was the same as Elle’s hating men on principal. He wondered how long she had been in the system. He realized he didn’t know. 

While standing in line for his turn to try the dremel his mind wandered back to Penelope when she first came. She had locked herself in her room for weeks because she had been almost directly sent to Hotch and still hadn’t fully grieved her parent’s deaths. She hated Hotch and would yell all sorts of obscenities about lawyers and guilt at Hotch. Eventually she came around but if Derek thought about it she was mean but not cut throat. That was the difference between her and Prentiss, Prentiss was cut throat and trying to push them away. 

Prentiss was more like JJ, scared of change and probably hoping that someone in her family would take her while also not wanting her family to come at the same time. Of course she was distrustful of Hotch, every kid with the exception of Spencer was even Derek. Prentiss like JJ cut to the chase and would say exactly what she was thinking. She was like Elle in that respect as well. Of course she would ask about Hotch, even if it was offensive, because she wanted to know if she was safe. Derek would have done the same thing.

He was up next, he showed Mr.Coakley that he knew how to change the bits and how to safely operate the dremel on the piece of test wood. The wood was now damaged and there were little nicks and random errors all over because everyone had a different plan for how it should look. 

He had P.E. with Coach Collins next. He loved gym class, he could just work out and let his mind go blank. He had to let his mind go blank. He had worked too hard with his therapist to reclaim gym spaces and football to not just let his mind go blank. To let the only that mattered was the game and the barking commands coming out of Coach’s mouth. His muscles were still sore from practice yesterday, they had run suicides multiple times throughout the practice cause Bridges and Lloyd were having some beef and wouldn’t focus. Derek loved the feeling of using his sore muscles, he was the only 10th grader on the varsity football team, he might just be back up at this point but the fact that he was on it was an accomplishment in itself. His muscles were proof of that. 

Mr. sorry Professor Grace was full of bullshit. Derek already wasn’t a fan of math, geometry wasn’t an exception, but damn this man really had it out for all of them. Triangles, fucking triangles, Derek wanted to scream. Professor Grace was one of those teachers that handed you a list of due dates and expected you to memorize it and have the work in on time, even sometimes asking for the work. Perfectly fine for Spencer but for the average high school student like Derek it was a personal hell. He had thought he had gotten last night’s assignment but it turned out nope he had Friday’s assignment and so he was going to get a zero for Wednesday because he hadn’t looked online under a random tab on Professor Grace’s website to find the bonus questions that were poorly labeled and last night’s homework. Derek really hoped Hotch accepted the legitimacy of this. 

The only nice things about geometry was it took his entire brain so his mind wasn’t wandering and also the decor was interesting. They were posters of complex shapes and famous art broken back down into the base shapes. Instead of the typical pi or number line around the room there was something called the Fibonacci sequence. 

They would be proving that two triangles were the same with strange three letter codes using sides and angles. It made Derek think of Penelope trying to explain Binary to him. Derek had decided he hated proofs, he would ask Spencer about them later.

On his way to lunch he ran into Prentiss. He had forgotten she would be coming to get all signed up for school. 

“Why are you out of the office?” He asked, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the swarming traffic of students and into an alcove. 

“Oh talking to me now?” She scoffed.

“Yeah I’m talking to you cause I know that Mr.Frost is a push over and I want to make sure Hotch isn’t going to get a call saying he’s lost the new kid.”

“Relax,” She was still also extremely tense and on the defensive, “Frost told me to go explore the school for 15 minutes or so as they get my test scores. I have a visitor's pass and everything. Aren’t you going to be late for class?” She flashes him a visitor's pass on a lanyard, it was supposed to be around her neck. 

“I have lunch, well try not to get lost.” With that he pushed back into the flood of students and was swept away. He tried to rationalize that he just did that for Hotch, not because he was worried about her. 

“I don’t get why you guys always miss meatloaf day, it's sooooo appetizing not knowing what’s in it,” Jordan Todd moaned as she sat down next to Penelope. She was currently on the outs with the rest of the cheerleaders so was willing to sit at the next step down in her mind from them. Derek didn’t trust her that much but  she wasn’t terrible. 

“I think it would be pushing our luck that Mr. Ferell hasn’t poisoned us all yet with it, I’m not taking that risk,” Penelope responded, taking a bite out of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Derek nodded his agreement, he would only ever eat the cafeteria food when meat wasn’t on the menu, Penelope had made him watch Food Inc and while he was still not going vegetarian like her he was more careful with his meat selection. 

“Hey, Jordan do you know why Bridges and Lloyd currently have beef?” He asked, he wanted to know if it would blow over soon or if he was looking at more practices of too many work outs. He also wanted to make sure the conversation didn’t turn to Prentiss. 

“Oh yeah, so according to Cherish Hanson, Cory and her are just friends but Adam accused her of cheating on him with Cory and so Cherish stopped hanging out with Cory as much. Cory got mad because Adam is his bro you know? Either way Cherish started running with Adam in the morning instead of doing her morning runs with Cory that they have been doing since sixth grade together.”

Penelope was listening intently, Derek knew that they all lived for this type of gossip. It made them feel like they were in some cheesy high school movie or poorly written high school fanfic sorry story. 

“Damn so practice isn’t going to be normal till they fully finish duking it out then,” Derek grumbled. 

“No sorry,” Jordan said, her voice dripping with fake sympathy, “Also I didn’t get to ask you but is it true you beat up Slade by kneeing him in the groin? Cause everyone’s saying that’s a chick move.”

Derek felt his face flush slightly, “Well he fucking deserved it and so what, I learned it from Elle. I also used his momentum to get him on his back but everyone seems to forget that part.” 

“Still fighting like that is low, you have the muscle you don’t need to resor-”

Derek remembered why he didn’t like Jordan that much, “Hey Jordan I won and that’s what matters. Foyet and Hotch are already pissed at me. I don’t need your opinion on my fighting technique.”

Jordan looked miffed but because she was mad at the cheerleaders still she couldn’t move without having to sit with people she didn’t know. Derek smiled slightly at this, he also decided to change the topic again as he threw out his lunch, “Hey Penny how much are you willing to give me to not tell Hotch you have a new phone again.”

Penelope’s face flushed, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Come on Penny, Monty told me that you were texting him. I know you have a new phone. How’d you get it? And what’s the bribe to not tell Hotch?”

Jordan didn’t seem interested in sibling squabble as she grabbed her bag and rooted for her make-up before heading towards the bathrooms. Penelope glared at Derek.

“How about no bribe cause you sold me out on Monday?”

“Monday’s penance was mild and you know that come on, how about you give me a half hour of your computer time for the rest of the week and for the weekend.”

Penelope looked conflicted before sighing, “Yeah sure, I’m going to the library this weekend anyway.”

Derek held out his hand and she took it, shaking it, “Always a pleasure doing business.”

Spanish class wasn’t good. Derek expected it would never be good. Mr.Fitzgerald was one of those teachers that wasn’t a native spanish speaker and most likely picked up a degree in it because he was “interested in the culture”. His accent was terrible compared to what Elle always used to yell at Hotch when she was mad or talk soothingly to Spencer when he was stressed. Derek had really only taken the class because he knew colleges liked to see multiple years of a language and spanish was a decent one to know. He was regretting that decision as Mr.Fitzgerald told them that this unit would be about movies and words relating to movies and then put on some CD that had people speaking slow spanish to each other and then repeating certain words for the class. Yeah this class was going to be a personal hell. 

English was going to be great this year. Derek was so excited, he had gotten Mr. Rossi as his teacher. Mr.Rossi who came over to the house frequently and helped give them rides, Rossi that was like the cool, nice uncle that Derek wished he had. Turns out that in class Rossi was still fun but Derek had found the problem with having Hotch be best friends with your teacher, expectations. While Jill Morris could gush over having read all of Rossi’s books and be a general nuisance if Derek decided to zone out Rossi would immediately call on him. Derek hoped that Rossi would cut him some slack but Rossi knew what level Derek was and decided he would hold him up to that standard. At least it was the last class of the day and Savannah Hayes was in the class which meant that Derek got plenty of time to work with her seeing that because of alphabetical seating he was right next to her. Sometimes alphabetical seating was okay. 

They were learning about magical realism and reading some strange story about a man getting turned into an axolotl, Derek didn’t really get it but Savannah seemed to like it so he liked it too. Everything was fine, then Emily fucking bane of his current existence Prentiss walked in.

“Hi is this Mr.Rossi’s room?” She asked.

‘Oh,’ Derek thought, ‘She could be polite.’

“Yes it is, who might you be?” Rossi asked.

“Emily Prentiss, Mr.Hotchner said you could give me a ride home today.” Everyone’s eyes darted back and forth between Derek and Emily trying to size up the situation. Derek wanted to melt into his seat and disappear. 

“Yep! Got his text, have a seat we were just finishing up the lesson, bell should ring in ten minutes,” Rossi said smoothly and gestured towards and empty seat in the back of the class, he then turned back to his class, “The way you’re all staring at me tells me you are all done with your worksheets and therefore I can collect them now instead of assigning them to be done for homework.” 

The class immediately was full of no’s and people looking back down and working quickly. Rossi shot Derek a look and gave him a slight nod. Savannah on the other hand didn’t get the memo to stop talking about Prentiss.

“You have a new foster sibling?” She asked.

“Yes.”

“Is she nice? She seems a little emo.”

“She’s fine.” She was not fine but Derek wanted her to stop talking. 

“Is she taking Elle’s old room?”

“Yes.”

“Does she fight like the rest of you?”

“Can we please go back to the worksheet?” Derek really didn’t want to talk about Prentiss with Savannah right now or ever. 

Savannah looked slightly surprised at that but agreed and they proceeded to work. 

The bus wasn’t much better except he could rant on the unwilling ear of Grant Anderson, the boy had dated Elle briefly before Elle had turned 18, and he lived down the street knowing Hotch since he was small. This meant that Grant was unwittingly and slightly unwillingly one of the team when they needed him. Penelope had debate club and NAHS after school today so she wasn’t on the bus which meant Grant got all of Derek’s frustration. 

“Well I mean at least you won’t have to deal with her for too long?” Grant offered.

“Grant, I’m going to have to deal with her for two years if she doesn’t get moved. And Hotch doesn’t have a track record of ever having a kid removed from his care except those times where JJ’s parents get custody for a week or a month.”

That was the other nice thing about Grant, while he didn’t know everything that happened he knew most of what happened and occurred in the house. 

Derek saw Rossi’s car leaving as his bus pulled up, Prentiss must already be inside. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again if there is any unsub/character you want to see please do tell. This is a crack fic and always has room for more background characters.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a bit of JJ's perspective.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was mad at my code and my parents were stressing me about stuff. So I wrote an angry emotional chapter so that I could vent through a character though none of the problems she has are mine.   
> Also my update schedule is going be hella random, so it might be like today where it was a couple in a row.   
> Or it could be a month of radio silence cause I don't feel like writing the piece. So don't think how often the updates are existing reflects anything.

JJ was mad at Prentiss on principle. She had tried to be nice and that backfired so now she was going to be angry. It didn’t help that her parents had called after ballet last night saying that they were now three months sober and would be trying to get custody yet again. JJ wished they would just stop. It never lasted because she looked too much like Ros and reminded them too much of Ros but she wasn’t Ros but that didn’t matter because it made them drink anyway. Then JJ would call Strauss and ask to go back to Hotch cause her parents were drunk again therefore breaking the agreement. All it accomplished was drag her out of school for a few days or weeks, once they had lasted a month. They were the reason she couldn’t get straight A’s. Though she guessed it would give her an interesting personal essay for colleges when she asked them to ignore all grades that were less than perfect. She knew that’s what Elle did, played the foster system card really hard and got a lot of scholarships. She knew that Derek was going for sports scholarships cause he didn’t want to use that method. 

That’s why she loved boxing, she could take all that anger at her parents, at Prentiss, at Ms. Hallman, at the fact she was thinking about college in 7th grade and turn it into something that got praised. She got to take on people who tried to see her as a girl and knock them down, it was cathartic and also the only time she could actually fight like she wanted to. No one in middle school actually fought, it was all petty. She couldn’t wait for high school to be like Elle and Derek. 

She knew that her noodle points would suffer when she got to high school, but she also knew she would need to protect Spencer. He would be graduating middle school with her next year and the plan was to be done with high school in two or three years depending on summer school possibilities and the amount of high school classes he took next year in addition to his middle school classes. He was already in freshman math, though that was offered in 8th grade. 

“JJ and Pratt, you’re up next!” Mr. Jimmy yelled. His last name was technically Hall but he said it made him feel old and as long as the “Mr.” was there for respect he was fine with them using his first name. He was a failed boxer, but a good teacher, he was also the P.E. teacher at the middle school. She rode her bike on Wednesdays so that Hotch wouldn’t have to drive her, this made her feel grown up. Hotch trusted her enough to not feel the need to drive her to everything in her schedule, it also meant she could do more. 

The kid she was currently going against was some 9th grader named William Pratt. His name pretty much said his personality. He loved to try to goad her while they would wrestle. Today was no different, except JJ was already angry.

“Such a shame you Hotchner kids aren’t allowed to have social media,” He was trying to bait her. On any other day she wouldn’t have taken it, today she was too angry.

“Yeah why's that?” She asked, dodging as he lunged at her, she was quicker on her feet then him.

“I heard Derek is starting to lose his balls in fights, if you get my drift.”

JJ got an uppercut on him, “What makes you say that?”

“Well he’s hitting below the belt and everyone knows girls only do that when they can’t protect themselves. That’s why Elle did it,” Pratt was grinning like a cat that got the cream. They were circling each other again.

“You didn’t even know Elle,” JJ hissed.

“Yeah but her fight with William Lee is all over the internet, everyone pretty much knows her. Tell me is it true she was actually a slut?”

JJ saw red, and Pratt got what he wanted. 

“JJ! Illegal moves get out of there and get your head back!” Mr.Jimmy was barking. 

Yes, JJ was angry and her anger didn’t subside by the time Mr. Jimmy was telling them they were done for the day and she had beat the hell out of a bag. She just felt empty and angry on the whole bike ride back home. That was what the house was, it was home, her parent's house wasn’t home but she would probably get put back in their care anyway. She busted through the door at 5:30 panting and sweaty and wanting a shower and for everything to stop. Instead she got Spencer running up to her.

“JJ look at this!” He shook what looked like a film container and the cap flew off, it hit her square in the forehead. His eyes went wide, “I’m sorry.”

“Spencer,” She grit out, “Just get the fuck out of my way.”

His body went ram rod straight before he gave her a nod and bolted like a scared rabbit. She didn’t think anything of it, all she wanted was the shower. She just  needed to get to the shower. 

The shower was glorious. Warm and the right pressure, she still felt hollow and angry but this was definitely helping. Then the banging on the door started. 

“JJ what did you say to Spencer, what exactly did you say to him. Hotch needs to know,” Derek’s voice was worried. 

She groaned before the pieces clicked together, then she felt sick. She had just told Spencer to fuck off. She knew better then that.

“Derek I told him to get out of my way, I was so angry oh no what did I do,” She was turning off the water and grabbing a towel. She didn’t care how much water she was getting on the floor as she opened up the door dripping wet with just a towel. There was Derek with a worried expression running his hands over his face. 

“Hotch found him behind a couch chanting and we knew it couldn’t be Prentiss this time because she’s been actually getting along with him and taught him something she was calling magic. So we figured it had to have been you cause you just got home and then Prentiss said he hadn’t come back.”

Anger flared back up in JJ, “So you’re taking her side over mine?”

Derek met her anger, “You just said what you did wrong, I’m taking no one’s but Spencer’s side cause this week has been rough on him and we all knew that. Hotch told us on Sunday that we needed to be more sensitive because of the time of year.” 

With that the last bit of anger in her broke and so did the dam of feelings. Tears started to well up in her eyes and spill down her cheeks. Derek saw this too, “Hey, hey it’s going to be okay. Listen I’m going to go tell Hotch what you said so he can calm down Spencer and then I’ll come right back okay?”

JJ nodded trying to both hold up her towel and wipe away the tears on her already wet cheeks. Derek gave her an awkward pat and hurried back down the stairs. True to his word he was back quickly, though she had now pulled on her pajama pants and a sleep shirt. The towel was now around her hair. 

“Okay J we’re gonna start at the top. Do you think you can talk or do you want-”

“My parents called, they want to take me again. But I don’t want to go. And they are messing up my future cause it messes up my classes when they take me and everything is changing. Tivon and Michael are being terrible and Ms. Hallman takes their side cause she favors boys over girls. And Mr. Jimmy yelled at me cause I beat up Pratt because he was making fun of you. And Emily Prentiss is not Elle which is good but also bad I don’t know. I tried to be nice but it backfired. Soccer tryouts are this Saturday and I don’t know if I’ll make the main team and I really don’t want to be on the B team again. Everything is being weird and I don’t want to keep being angry but everything is making me angry and then Spencer’s thing blew and hit me in the face so I blew up at him and now he’s crying and Hotch is going to be so mad at me.”

By the end of her rant she was fully sobbing. Derek pulled her close to him, “Shhhh, it’ll be okay just let it out. Have you ever known Hotch to be unjust? I’ll even put a good word for you, you have a lot going on. Also don’t worry about me, people are just grasping for gossip so early on in the school year. Does Hotch know about the phone call?”

JJ nodded and added a weak, “Thanks.”

“Dinner’s not for another hour, you want to play a game? I bet Spencer and Penelope would be down.” 

JJ nodded, she might have a lot going on but she also had this house her home to support her through it. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hotch is really trying his best. He would say he's doing a pretty good job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dad Hotch being a tired single dad.

To say Emily’s second dinner in the Hotchner house was tense would be an understatement. Hotch really wished he could clone himself so that he could take each kid and give them a hug and talk about their problems while also doing his work but he couldn’t. Instead he could only watch chaos completely wreck the house. He knew it was going to happen, he knew that they wouldn’t fully come to him about any of it, he knew that the house was going to be a mess for the next week or so. He hated mess. 

JJ and Spencer had made up mainly because Spencer didn’t understand how to hold a grudge or be mad at anyone for anything. Derek had gotten them all to play a game, well that is to say everyone but Emily. Because Derek and JJ started the game and invited Spencer (once Hotch had gotten him to calm down) and Penelope (who he was pretty sure had another burner phone) and also because they purposely picked the four player game of Ludo, Emily couldn’t play. So instead she found herself sitting in the kitchen while Hotch finished up dinner for that night: frozen peas, baked potato and a rotisserie chicken he had picked up from Costco after work. The chicken was going cold. Everyone’s emotions were running high. The potatoes were almost done. Everyone was going to their therapy appointments this week, they needed it. The microwave beeped with the peas.

“Emily, would you mind helping me set the table?” Hotch really hoped she wouldn’t still have her barriers up too high. She had been hanging out with Spencer for the past few hours. 

“Sure.” Hotch thanked his lucky stars she hadn’t argued with him right then. 

“Just forks, knives and glasses,” He pointed to the cupboard with the cups and pulled out the cutlery draw to show her. She got out the needed utensils and started to set the round table. 

“No knife for Spencer please,” Hotch added as the potatoes were finally done. The microwave was still beeping hadn’t he turned it off?

“Kay.”

At 7 p.m. Hotch found four more kids entering, they seemed calmer probably due to the game. Spencer was smiling, Hotch wondered if they let him cheat or if he won naturally. He dished out plates, making sure to cut up Spencer's food before giving it to him.

“Alright everyone dig in.” They did, no one said a word. This was not normal. Sure the past two nights dinners had been tense but that was due to problems, no one was in trouble right now. They still weren’t talking to Emily, Hotch tried to ignore it. Is attempt was rewarded when Spencer started talking about peas.

“Did you know that peas have phenethylamine, it’s one of the love chemicals.”

“Isn’t that also found in chocolate?” Emily asked, Hotch watched, almost amused as the other three kids shot her a look. She just made herself harder to ignore. 

“Yes it is!” Spencer was almost beaming now, someone had taken his fact and added onto it, “It’s funny too because the shorthand for it is P-E-A or pea! If you take a lot of it it can get you high with feeling of euphoria-”

Hotch coughed slightly, breaking his rant, it was fine that he was breaking the tension at the table but Hotch didn’t want Spencer to talk about altering states of mind. He hadn’t figured out where Emily fell on that scale yet. 

Spencer stopped talking and glanced at Hotch. Derek broke through this time but just like this morning made sure everyone knew exactly who he was and wasn’t talking to. 

“Hey Spencer, remember how over the summer you told me all about noble gases?”

Spencer nodded. 

“Well today Mr.Hill called on me to ask about noble gases and I was able to give him a correct answer because of what you told me. So thanks for that kid.” 

Hotch didn’t outwardly smile but it felt like one line of tension had been cut, this was the type of dinner he was used to. 

JJ added to that, “Derek, you should have heard Spencer today during lunch with Maeve and Ethan they were talking about something to do with DNA and genetic diseases, stuff you probably wouldn’t learn unless you took AP Bio.”

Penelope laughed at this, “Too bad you're not great at tech Spencer I would have loved the help with AP Comp Sci otherwise. Although it’s such a testosterone filled class. Elle would have flipped.”

Spencer seemed to preen under the praise, this is what he needed. The only problem was Hotch knew they were doing this to purposely ignore Emily as much as possible. 

“Come on Penny,” Derek added, “You know you don’t need any help in that class. Freshmen aren’t even supposed to be in that class.”

Emily seemed interested in this, “How did you get in then?”

And just like that the tension resettled on the dinner table and everyone went quiet. Spencer who had finished shoveling his food away but never would take seconds (even after nearly four years Hotch still didn’t know if that was trauma or just how the kid ate) was looking like he wanted to be excused. Hotch decided now would be the best time for announcements for schedule changes. 

“JJ and Emily, dishes tonight. JJ I know you're angry and this isn’t punishment, this is just giving you something to keep busy, also so you can teach Emily where everything goes. All good?”

No one said anything he gave a short nod and stood up himself, “I have a decent amount to get done tonight. If you need anything though do not hesitate to ask. I’m available all night. Please get homework done. Also I have a court date on Monday and I’ll be leaving by 6, that means Derek will be in charge that day. Rossi already said he’s available for any rides you might need. It is most likely going to be a leftovers night as well, though if I’m home before 6:30 I’ll grab pizza. 

The word pizza made all the kid’s eyes light up, Emily’s included Hotch stored away the knowledge that even she wasn’t immune to pizza. With that he walked out of the kitchen. He had done his part as much as he could, he couldn’t solve what he didn’t know and he wasn’t going to force it out of them. 

Spencer was the first one to make good on his open door policy, though it wasn’t to talk. It was to just sit quietly and read and work on homework on the floor. Though a couple times he crawled into Hotch’s lap and just cuddled himself there for a few minutes before going back, Hotch didn’t mind and if he was being honest he liked it. It made him feel useful and also was a nice break from reading through the lies and testimonies of people trying to find the thread of truth that would help his client. 

Derek came in next, though it was just to collect Spencer, he needed help with geometry and triangles. Spencer’s eyes seemed to gleam behind his too large glasses at the prospect of more math and teaching. 

JJ slunk in at some point, Hotch ignored her as she gathered herself. She was snapping the rubber band on her wrist, he knew not to ask what was wrong till she started talking. Finally she asked, “If you could adopt me would you? If my parents stopped fighting for me would you want me?”

Hotch turned his chair around to face her, he reached out his hand if she wanted them, “Of course I would sweetheart. I would love to adopt you, but that doesn’t make you any less my daughter then Penelope. I hope you know that. I love you and your status on who's your legal guardian isn’t going to change that.” 

JJ flung herself at him, he caught the emotional pre-teen as she hugged him hard, he returned the gesture. 

“Why don’t I hate them? They’ve made my life a nightmare and I hate them for it but I don’t hate them?”

“Of course you don’t hate them even if they aren’t fit guardians they are still your parents. You’re allowed to love and hate them.”

“Why am I the reason they drink?”

Hotch paused at that, “You’re not the reason they drink. They are addicts that think once they have their kid back they can stop attending meetings and lose accountability quickly.” 

His shoulder felt damp, he adjusted his arms so he could hold her more firmly and draw her into the chair. They stayed like that for a solid five minutes, Hotch pet her long blonde hair every once and a while and murmured reasurments. Eventually she started to disentangle herself, her eyes still red.

“I shouldn’t be crying,” She muttered.

“Hey there is no shame in crying or asking for help,” He reminded her. 

She gave him a watery smile before fully pulling away and leaving. Hotch just turned back to his work. They needed this, he reminded himself, this is what you're here for. When they need you they will come to you, don’t push them. 

Finally the real reason for his open door came in, Emily Prentiss. She seemed unsure, Hotch knew he would have to start this conversation.

“What can I do for you?”

“Everyone’s doing homework, I don’t know. They are all still avoiding me.”

“Don’t worry they never go silent on anyone longer for three days. You're not excommunicated, that’s only happened to one person and it was a whole fanfare.”

She gave a small smile at that, “I know you weren’t there but I feel like I need to apologize to you for what I said.” She was fiddling with her chipped nails, “But I’ve never actually apologized for anything before.”

“Well it’s good practice to start with ‘I’m sorry’ and then put whatever the offense was.”

Emily nodded and pulled at her sleeves, “Well I’m sorry that I insinuated you would ever touch the kids here.”

Hotch’s mind went blank for a second, she had what. No wonder Derek and JJ were refusing to talk to her. He had to stop himself from showing any outward signs of frustration, “That’s a good first step. Thank you for telling me.” He couldn’t find it in him to tell her it was alright. 

She nodded stiffly and nudged at the carpet with her socked foot, black socks with red skulls on them, “Also I’m sorry that I was being rude to you before as well.”

He nodded again, “Thank you for that, it’s alright you were just settling in and testing me.”

She nodded again, “Yeah.”

“Can I ask what made you want to apologize?” Hotch asked gently, this is what he needed, her walls were down. She pulled her sleeves so they were completely covering her hands before rubbing the back of her neck. 

“Spencer, he’s just so nice and the whole time he kept talking about how amazing you all were in between all his facts. But I can tell that he had been through hell and back. I don’t even hold a candle to his past. Yet here I am being selfish and rude and my nanny didn’t raise me to be like that.”

Hotch noted that she contributed her growth to a nanny, not her late mother. “We don’t compare pasts as better or worse, we are all surviving the best way we can. That’s all that matters, it isn’t a competition.”

She laughed at that, “Yeah, okay.”

“Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

She was biting her lip, there was clearly something else that she wasn’t saying. Then she shook her head and her walls were back up, “Nope, thanks though.”

He reminded himself not to push, to let them come to him as she left. He turned back to his work, he had to finish his opening statement for Monday. Meeting with his client earlier was good and helped a lot. 

Each kid filtered back through except Emily to say goodnight. Spencer asked for a hug that was granted immediately, Hotch was proud of him for asking. Derek just wanted to tell him that he was making sure Spencer actually got to sleep tonight. JJ thanked him and looked half embarrassed. Penelope excitedly talked his ear off about the debate team before she said goodnight. 

It might be hard, but Hotch wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my end notes for me keeps showing that the unsub thing is still there... Do I have to over write it like this? Cause I will. Or was that just a glitch on my computer's end. Either way here is the end note I didn't plan for.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penelope gets in trouble and had her own problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I didn't want to code so I wrote about my favorite fictional coder and her issues on this day of school.
> 
> Also Hotch is a soccer mom and I don't make the rules, I asked a friend and they confirmed.

Penelope usually was full of sunshine and rainbows. She loved new people but she also hated changes in her family. It was like two wolves battling inside her, right now the noodle points were telling her Emily wasn’t a good fit, even though she was only at negative 2 again because Spencer was so happy that he asked for some of them to be removed. On top of that she found herself in her english class taught by Mr.Kern. They were going to be reading Of Mice and Men and Penelope knew it was going to be sad. Elle had told her once that all books you read for english classes were either sad or horribly misogynistic and boring and sometimes they were all three. After the first chapter she was already sad for the poor mice and for Lenny, he seemed so nice. She needed to recharge and stay positive. If she was going to get through the day she needed to remain positive. She pulled out her animal journal filled with pictures of cute animals she had found in magazines and calendars sent to Hotch for possible donations. 

It was easier to stay positive with cute things when the cute things aren’t the things dying. 

Next period she was one of two girls, it was AP Comp Sci and she wasn’t even really supposed to be able to take this class as a freshman. But she had hacked the computer system every time they tried to put her anywhere else. The teacher made an exception because she obviously knew her way around a computer and he wanted so see if she could code. Of course she could code, she had started learning back in 5th grade with drag and drop code and then took the Javascript course on Khan academy in 6th grade. Hotch had given her an introduction to Java book one year for Christmas and allowed her to download programming software onto the computers. Then Dr. Blake let her download software onto the library computers too. Long story short she knew how to code and she was going to prove that. 

Monty was her saving grace in that class to stop her from being overwhelmed. She had tried to talk to the other girl, a senior named Megan Kane, but had ultimately been shut down. Monty introduced her to his two friends: Kevin Lynch and Barry Winslow. Having a group helped fend off some of the comments that Slade was making to her about Derek. She really wished everyone would practice non-violence like her. Slade kept saying that Derek took a sissy shot because he couldn’t deal with him like a real man. Monty kept a hand on her arm all class as Mr. Vasher droned on about hardware because it was the first unit even though it wasn’t on the final test. Bits to bytes conversions and storage power. Penelope cared but she already knew all of it and if Slade threw one more small ball of paper at her she was going to blow, non-violently. 

“Hey look!” Barry whispered to her. She glanced at his monitor to realize he now was looking at everyone’s screens, “How hard do you think it would be to take over Slade’s?” 

She smiled, yes she could see her and Barry becoming very good friends. 

Good friends land you in the main office with the principal pinching his forehead and calling your guardians in front of everyone. She heard the bell ring, she was going to be missing history now which was a shame because Mr.Duncan seemed cool so far. 

“Ms.Garcia, Mr.Winslow and Mr.Slade, I understand that you might not all get along but going on illicit sites on school computers breaks more then a few rules,” Cruz started. 

“Sir,” Barry timidly spoke up, “I’m not sure why Penelope is here. It was my computer and my code that got Randy in trouble. She didn’t help, she didn’t even tell me to do anything.”

“Penelope is here because of her previous record with this school's database even before she was enrolled here and also because Mr.Slade said he assumed it was her who did it. Your testimony though will be taken into consideration,” Mr.Cruz pulled a different phone out of his desk and dialed a number, “Also Penelope when you get home if you could please unblock the school’s number from your guardian’s phone that would be greatly appreciated. Ah yes Mr. Hotchner, Principal Cruz.”

“No not Emily’s schedule. This is about Penelope.”

“No don’t worry she’s unharmed, but we need you to come to the office because she and Mr.Winslow had an alteration with Mr.Slade in her Computer Science class.”

“Yes thank you I understand I will see you soon.”

Penelope wanted to sink into the floor. She could almost imagine Hotch’s face of disappointment, not anger, never anger just extreme disappointment. Barry was fidgeting in his chair obviously nervous about his parents coming and even Slade looked slightly pale even as he kept his cocky grin. 

Twenty minutes later Hotch was the first to arrive, shortly followed by Slade’s mom and if looks could kill Slade would be dead. She walked straight over to him and whispered something harshly in her ear while Hotch calmly walked over to Penelope and held out his hand. She reached into her pocket and pulled out all the crumpled pieces of paper, Hotch always told them to collect evidence. 

“I’m the victim here mom!” Slade’s outcry was met with a sharp look before his mom took a seat next to him. The door opened again to reveal two men entering and giving Barry a sharp look he visibly flinched and went still. Hotch noticed the interactions but his face remained blank as he read over the papers Penelope had handed him.

Hotch was the first one to address the room, “Okay Cruz why are we here, most issues don’t require me to show.”

Cruz took a deep breath, “Hotchner do we really need to play this game right now? This is about Ms.Garcia’s aptitude for hacking school property only this time she brought Mr.Winslow into her rule-breaking. The target was Mr.Slade and while Mr.Winslow claims he acted alone her proximity to him along with her record made it so she also had to come in.”

Hotch nodded, settling down in one of the open chairs. His face was still completely blank and his body completely relaxed but Penelope could tell how angry he was at the fact that he crossed one leg over the other in a closed off position. Barry’s guardians were the next to speak and Barry stiffened.

“Barry was obviously coerced to help this girl, he’s a very talented boy with the computer and she used him for it,” The man stood with a hand on Barry’s shoulder.

“Mr.Winslow your so-”

“Rubernis, Barry isn’t my son.” 

“Sorry Mr.Rubernis, Mr.Winslow clearly did the act. Whether he has an accomplice is a different matter but he will still be put in ISS (in school suspension for anyone who doesn’t know) until next Tuesday per school rules seeing as this is his first offense. But he is also dismissed for the rest of the day. Now Ms.Garcia, Mr.Winslow said that you have nothing to do with it and I’m going to take him at his word, but this is a warning. If no one has any more complaints that’s what’s going to happen.”

“Principal Cruz not to impose but what is being done about Mr.Slade’s clear bullying? I understand that my kids have had multiple altercations with him just this year alone but in all honesty each time it was clear self defense or retribution. Even here I have proof of harassment from him to my daughter. Yet you dragged her in here as a possible accomplice.” Penelope could have hugged Hotch for that, she was going to hug Hotch later. Hotch had passed forward the notes that Slade had been throwing at her. 

“Hotchner your children are less than innocent-”

“I would say! Randy ended up in the nurse's office because of your son!” Ms.Slade interrupted. 

“Self-defense and protecting another student from your son’s bullying. Also innocent is a case by case thing, isn’t that what you told me last year about William Lee? Don’t change the rules on my account,” Hotch was goading Cruz now, Penelope knew that nothing more could come out of the Lee/Elle situation but Cruz had never admitted he was in the wrong which was what Hotch wanted. 

“A verbal harassment claim will be filed against Mr.Slade, but nothing further can be done at this time,” Cruz succeeded but then to get back some of his power, “Maybe bullying in the school should be addressed at the next PTA meeting.”

Hotch leaned back against the chair again, Penelope could tell this is what he wanted. “Yes, I will most definitely be bringing it up with the PTA. Also seeing as this is Mr.Winslow first offense and it was clearly done in a form of defense maybe it shouldn’t go down on his permanent record. After all innocence is a case to case thing.” 

Barry’s other uncle jumped on that, “Barry has been an exemplary student, something like this could put a dark mark and what they were just playing. No damage done, just give the punishment but as Mr.Hotchner says case to case.” 

Cruz sat there with four guardians glaring at him, they were allowing punishments as long as documentation was lax, Penelope knew that they would get it. Cruz let out a sigh that Penelope had heard about from Elle and Derek, they called it Cruz’s ‘hand’s tied in submission’ sigh. “That’s fine. A complaint against Mr.Slade, ISS with no record for Mr.Winslow and Ms.Garcia gets nothing because she wasn’t actually involved past being a victim.”

Each parent looked around sizing each other up one last time, except Hotch before giving their approval. Hotch stood, shook hands with Cruz and the other parents and left the room with a simple, “I’ll see you at 6:30 Penny, have a good day y’all.”

Penelope darted out of the room after him, she could hear the bell ringing again and she had officially missed history and now had math. Hotch was talking with the secretary, Mr.Frost, and getting some documents, she was going to say thank you but then she heard the name Emily and ducked completely out of the office and into the crowd of students moving towards their next class. 

On her way to class she pulled out the phone that Shane had gotten for her. There were 20 missed messages, half from Monty, two from an unknown number that then claimed to be Kevin and then 8 from Shane saying he heard what happened and he approved. She shouldn’t care about his approval but her crush was strong and Shane was so cool and knew so much about gaming and coding it was like the perfect match. Though he didn’t seem to like her bright demeanor as much. She shot back texts about what happened. 

She wondered if a make over would make Shane like her more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did Randy Slade become the main antagonist? I really don't know. He wasn't even an actual unsub cause he was dead through that episode. Maybe it's his name.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily starts to realize she's catching feelings.

Emily knew something was wrong when Hotch had told her that he had to go over to the high school for Penelope. He had asked if she was okay being alone, she pointed out she wasn’t 8. He had taken a deep breath and asked that she please didn’t get in trouble and he would be back in an hour. 

An hour had passed and he still wasn’t back, based on how much time dedicated the house that made her uneasy. She wondered if someone was hurt, she didn’t think so but then again Hotch had a blank face that was almost impossible to read. When an hour and half passed she found herself pacing from room to room before she stopped herself. She wasn’t supposed to care. She was supposed to cause a fuss and then get moved again. She was supposed to keep getting bounced till she was able to access the trust fund at 18 and then the rest of her mother’s money. She was supposed to be the nuisance that made it so all her aunts and uncles wouldn’t take her in. She was not supposed to be worried because her guardian was half an hour late to what? What was he even going to be late to? 

She found herself in her still blank room with it’s still packed bags. A small pile of laundry growing in the basket that Hotch had given her yesterday. She cracked her knuckles and rolled her shoulders, all she needed to do was repair her walls. Last night was getting to her that’s all it was. Spencer with his curls and doe eyes was getting to her that was it. She just had to build back up her walls, the best way to do that was look even more rebellious. She tore through her bags to try and find her anarchy sweatshirt and her chain earrings with the clasps that made it look like she had more piercings. She pulled out her makeup and blacked out her entire eye and pulled sticky black lipstick over her lips. She gave the mirror a small peck, a black mark of lips. She pulled on ripped up black jeans with fishnets underneath and her socks with purple lightning bolts all over them. She almost mismatched them but that made her think of Spencer and she would not have anything in her fashion sense model an 8 year old. 

Hotch was now an hour late. She found herself in the kitchen looking at the large calendar. Each person had a color and the schedule was perfect. She tried to see if she could guess who had what color. 

The brown was clearly brown, there were case dates and minimal information that sounded like school. Also PTA meeting was listed for next week on Tuesday. 

Red was the next easiest to guess it only had football, therapy and going over to someone named Matt’s house. She guessed it was Derek, he seemed the jock type and she doubted that Penelope was on the football team. 

Spencer was the purple. He just had therapy, library and seemingly random dates with Triv written next to it. It fit him the most she figured, also she had seen him come home after school two days in a row now therefore he wasn’t one of the more active kids. 

Based on outward appearance and learning that Penelope was good with computers she put the pink to Penelope. It had the coding club and the gaming association along with NAHS, debate, theater and debate. She was the one with her fingers in many pies, Emily wondered if one of those pies had gotten her in trouble and made Hotch now an hour and half late. 

That just left JJ for blue. Apparently JJ did ballet, therapy and boxing with soccer tryouts this Saturday. 

Emily was wondering where her green would fit into this rainbow when she heard the front door open with Hotch loudly cursing over the phone.

“Sean I don’t know what to fucking tell you. I have my hands already full with the kids, I can’t just come at your beck and call to bail you out. I would have loved to come see you but hotels are expensive and a 9 hour round-trip car ride sounds like hell. Also if you needed money and a lawyer you shouldn’t have started with ‘do you want to come up and see me?’ You know how much I hate that. Listen how about I call someone I know that can help you out, he owes me a favor but I have to go now cause I just got home.”

Hotch was making direct eye contact with Emily and handed her a plastic bag, it was filled with school supplies of course he probably got her schedule and what she needed. She felt like an idiot. 

“Yes Sean. Yep I know. I’ll always love, my friend should be there in a half hour,” As Hotch hung up the phone he turned back to Emily, “There is another bag in the car also a backpack that I thought you might like, if you don’t like it we can return it and get something else. Sorry that I took longer than I thought, I need to make another call.” With that he dropped his eyes on a ring by the door and was dialing another number while walking into his office and closing the door. 

Emily wondered who Sean was. She walked out in her socks to the car, sure enough there was another Staples bag and a black pack with rainbow zippers. She bit her lip, why had he gotten her something with rainbows? He wasn’t wrong in saying that she liked it but it unnerved her that even with all her black he still found something slightly colorful she liked. She pulled the items from the car and closed the trunk before making her way back into the house. Once inside she looked into the bags there was a piece of paper with her name printed in large letters across the top. She picked it up, letting the bags remain on the floor by the door. 

PRENTISS, EMILY

Guardian: Hotchner, Aaron

Grade: 11

Academic Counselor: Bakken, Eric

Schedule:

1: AP CHEMISTRY s1,s2 - Lewis, Peter [C432]

2: Pre-Calculus s1,s2 - Banks, Curtis [D188]

3: Health s1 - Calleghan, Kate [E253]

3: P.E. s2 - Porter, Amelia [E150]

4: U.S. History s1,s2 - Gideon, Jason [D379]

5: Lunch s1,s2 [CAFE]

6: AP Language & Comprehension s1,s2 - Breitkopf, Frank [D479]

7: Photography s1 - Rowling, Vincent [A311]

7: Study Hall s2 - Kerrigan, Emma [C343]

8: French 3 s1,s2 - Montgomery, Hayden [D285]

Notes: Needs an updated physical, appointments can be made with the school. Schedule was made between her talk with Mr.Bakken and necessary requirements to graduate, it is suggested she fill the Study Hall but not necessary. 

Emily looked over the schedule again, this was not what she was expecting her schedule to look like. She was expecting she didn’t really know. She had been tutored all the way through for the most part and when she was hanging out with people it was always the prep schools that she would take her standard finals at to let her know if she passed the grade. She thought about the maze like school she visited yesterday, she wondered if she could convince Derek to help her get around. No she would figure it out by herself she was not going to try and negotiate with Derek. Spencer was fine, Hotch was touch and go but Derek had done - something she wasn’t sure yet - which meant she couldn’t try to negotiate with him. Derek was also clearly the leader of the kids but she wasn’t going to be bossed around by someone younger than her. 

She was bored. She was extremely bored. Trying to not get comfortable in this house meant she had limited options. She found herself in the family room and browsing the bookshelves. Every possible variety of book was there in the end she found herself picking up Kurt Vonnegut’s Jailbird because the cover looked interesting and she remembered reading Slaughter-House 5 and not hating it. 

She didn’t even realize what time it was till she heard a door slam open with a loud, “MR. HOTCHNER!” 

She heard Hotch’s door open quickly, “Riley, what’s wrong?” 

“Spencer’s having another panic attack, some of the kids on the bus were teasing him about his hair and his socks and he completely shut down,” whoever this was voice was rising and Emily found herself darting out of her seat and into the hallway. In the hallway stood a wild-eyed ten or eleven year old in what looked to be a  baseball jersey.

Hotch was already outside moving towards the stopped bus, he boarded it with no hesitation and minutes later came back with Spencer in his arms and JJ following. The bus closed its doors and continued down the road. When he got back inside Emily could see him make his way right towards her or at least the room she was currently blocking off, she stepped out of the way. 

“Thank you Jesus that I didn’t cancel his appointment today,” She heard him mutter as he passed her and into the family room, closing the door behind him. JJ was talking with the kid, Riley, reassuring him that Spencer would be alright and thanking him for his help. Riley eventually noticed Emily hovering and jumped in fright.

“You look like one of those punks my mom warns me to avoid,” He told her.

“Nice kid,” Emily replied, “Emily Prentiss.”

“Riley Jenkins, well JJ I need to go before my dad calls the police because I’m late again.”

“Does he really think you're kidnapped each time?” JJ asked laughing as the boy started walking back out.

“Yeah, leave his sight for three minutes or late by ten and he assumes I’ve been grabbed by some pedo,” The kid laughed back before waving once more and disappearing out the door. JJ closed it behind her. 

“Is Spencer going to be okay?” Emily asked quietly, she hoped JJ would talk to her. Tell her everything would be alright.

“Well Hotch isn’t touching him if that’s what you're wondering,” JJ replied curtly before pushing past her and up the stairs, “Don’t go into the family room until Hotch comes out though.” 

Emily stood there alone yet again in this house, she felt worried and nervous and she couldn’t do anything and her book was in the one place she couldn’t go. She grabbed the school supply bags and her new backpack off the floor, might as well put this stuff away. Just because she was putting away the stuff that Hotch bought her did not mean she was getting comfortable. 

20 minutes later she heard the sound of small feet on the stairs, she quickly opened up her door. Sure enough there was Spencer, he had her book in his hands.

“Were you reading this?” His voice was timid.

She gave him a reassuring smile, because he had had a bad day not because he was growing on her, “Yeah I was. Have you read it before?”

“Yeah, I’ve read all of Kurt Vonnegut. Hotch didn’t initially want me to but then Elle had bought them for herself and Derek and then I read them. Also I run out of reading material so quickly that Hotch can’t really ban books.”

“That’s cool, how fast can you read?”

“I can read 8,000 words per minute but they think that as I get older and smarter that I will be able to read even faster!” Spencer’s eyes were gleaming now and he was almost bouncing at the prospect. 

Emily felt her own eyes go wide, “Wow that’s impressive. I was about to-” what was she about to do that she could invite Spencer to do, she looked at her chipped nails, “to redo my nails. Do you want to do it with me?”

Spencer seemed to hesitate, “Isn’t that a girl thing?”

“No, anyone can paint their nails, but if you’re scared of people seeing we can paint your toenails.”

He seemed to brighten up at that idea, “That sounds fun! Did you know that pedicures often lead to people feeling more relaxed. However it can be incredibly dangerous if the salon doesn’t clean properly because then foot fungus is more likely to infect other people, not just its original host.”

“That’s interesting, good thing we aren’t doing a full pedicure then,” Emily pulled out her nailpolish out, she had four colors: silver, black, red and purple.

“Mhmm and nailpolish originated from China around 3000 is one of the first recorded cases of it. In Egypt they colored their nails with earth tones and the higher class used henna. Then nail polish wasn’t really used enough to be documented until the 1920s when nail polish came with colors.”

“Speaking of color, what color do you want? Or do you want mismatched like your socks?” Emily had learned yesterday to just cut off his rants if need be, he would either pick up where he left off or find a different tangent. 

“Mismatched please! Silver and purple!” Spencer was pulling off his socks. Emily could see a nasty scar on the bottom of his left foot. She remembered him saying he had broken some bones in it once, “Did you know that purple is a color associated with royalty? It used to be really hard to get a purple dye and it all came from one place. Rulers would actually forbid their subjects from wearing it with the death penalty. The reason it was so hard to make is because it took thousands of a certain type of sea snail to make. Then in 1856 an 18 year old chemist named William Perkin accidentally created the first synthetic purple dye. He was trying to find a cure for malaria,” Emily was now fanning his left foot of purple toes to get them to dry faster, “He never found the cure for malaria but did end up setting up a successful dye business.” He looked at her fanning at his toes, “Most nail polish takes up to 10 minutes to set however it is still not completely dry for one to two hours. Which might be a problem because I have an appointment at 4:30.”

“You could wear flip-flops? Though I never have problems with this polish after 15 minutes,” Emily suggested, she finished off his pinky toe in a nice silver sheen. Capping it and grabbing out her nail polish remover. 

“I’ll trust you, you know your polish and you clearly do this a lot,” Spencer decided. Emily hummed as she scrubbed off the black from the corners of her ring finger. Spencer jumped into a new topic about the chemical make-up of nail polish and nail polish remover and how it worked. This was fine, she could get used to this.

Wait no she wasn’t supposed to be getting used to this. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek deals with some aftermath and makes a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost keep writing Derek as Morgan and it is throwing me for a fucking loop.   
> Also people being emotional healthy and talking is my kink so this fic will be full of it.

Derek loved his family. Everyone on the football team knew that. So everyone on the football team also knew better then to ask what was wrong when he came to practice with steam practically coming out of his ears. He wanted to pound Slade into the dirt, so what if he had taken a cheap shot, Slade had been harrassing someone who couldn’t fight back. In the locker rooms though some of the guys had made throw away comments about Derek being a sissy. He ignored them and let football make his mind go blank, he needed this. He needed the burn in his lungs and his muscles working letting his mind just listen to Coach Collins and ignore everyone else as they ran drills. 

Derek ignored any talk that wasn’t football related. Bridges and Lloyd were still on the outs over Hanson so the team was still doing extra drills as punishment. Derek didn’t care, he liked the ache that his muscles would be giving. He thought about the nice shower later. 

Practice was fine, not the best but not bad at all. Everyone was changing and throwing their stuff into lockers when Austin Settergren sidled up behind him, “Hey Hotchner, I heard you took a girl shot. That your fake sister taught you that move. Did she also teach you how to bend over an-”

Derek quizzed around and raised a fist, “Don’t talk like you know anything. Though didn’t Elle beat you up once too?”

Settergren was all talk, wouldn’t actually fight, and Derek knew that as he took a few steps back raising his hands,“Hey now, calm down tiger. Your fake sister never beat me up, how would a girl ever beat me up?” 

Derek lowered his fist but stayed tense, “I could find her old fight book, Hotch kept every incidence report sheet and nurses sheet. Want me to check if you can still have kids with your girlfriend?” 

Settergren’s face was bright red and he just muttered insults that Derek couldn’t catch. Derek let out a breath he didn’t even he was holding before grabbing his bag and darting from the lockers. He knew he still had to wait a half hour till Penelope got out of theatre practice. He pulled out his chem homework, copying the periodic table. He tried to fill in what he could remember before flipping to the back of one of the composition notebooks where it was in tiny print. 

“Whatcha got there?” 

Derek looked up to find a red head grinning down at him, “Homework, chem.”

“Oh nice, chemistry was such a dull subject for its name.” 

Derek didn’t know what she wanted, “I’m Derek.”

“Yeah Megan told me about ya. About how you're the youngest kid on the football team. I’m Cherry.”

“You’re a cheerleader?”

Cherry laughed, “Oh no, not a cheerleader but I help them get rid of their boy problems.” 

“Sounds entertaining, why you still hanging around?” Derek asked, this was much more interesting than starting his english paper. 

“Came back to the school after work cause its closer and was trying to see if I could find a ride home. Why you still here, football is done and most the guys hang out in the gym lot anyway.” She sat down next to him on the floor, leaning up against the wall with an easy smile. 

“I need to wait for my sister to get out of theatre before Hotch picks us up.”

“Do you think Hotch could give me a ride?” She asks suddenly.

“Ummm…” Derek starts, “Depends on where you're going but probably.”

Cherry nodded, “Your house is so nice, I was always so jealous of Elle.”

Derek realized where she probably actually knew him from, this was one of Elle’s various friends, “Have you been over before or have you just heard stories?”

“I’ve been over. Elle was babysitting the little one, Spencer I think?” Cherry closed her eyes, “He had the stomach bug poor thing, he was so cute telling me facts and info. The rest of you were out doing stuff, I don’t know.” 

“That was for one of JJ’s games. Hotch got pissed that Elle had someone over. But Elle told him something and she didn’t get in trouble.” 

“Huh,” Cherry said, “So when’s your sister getting out?”

“6:30.”

“Cool, hey are you as smart as your little brother or at least smart enough to help me with figuring out what Shakespeare is trying to tell me?” She reached into her bag and pulled out a copy of Taming of the Shrew. Derek had read it because they had all gone to see it last spring break, Elle had hated it with a passion. 

“Not as smart as Spencer, but I know the plot of that one at least.” 

“Better then I’m doing then.”

They read, Derek explaining what was happening from what he remembered from watching it, until kids were coming out of the auditorium doors. Penelope skipped over. 

“Hey! Ready to go?”

“Yep, Cherry you still want to ask Hotch for that ride?” Derek said getting up and offering a hand to Cherry. Cherry took it nodding.

Hotch was waiting in the parking lot, he simply looked at Cherry before telling them all to get in. Derek climbed in the front.

“Where to Ms.Rollins?” He asked.

“Wow, you even remembered my name,” Cherry laughed, “Scarecrow Road please, it is pretty much on the way to your house.”

Hotch looked in the mirror and gave him a rare smile, “I know where it is. How’s Christopher doing?”

Cherry seemed to freeze at that, “He’s doing good. Real good. Thanks again for the ride.”

The rest of the car ride was quiet, until he turned onto Scarecrow, “Which house are you again?”

“The red one that looks like a barn, just up a bit further.”

“Do you know Randy Slade?”

“Nope, never even heard the name.”

Hotch pulled into the driveway, “Okay thank you, have a good night.”

Cherry gave them a little wave before pushing open the door and getting out. 

“Social services fail so many kids” Hotch muttered as he pulled back out of the driveway. Then louder he said, “Randy Slade is just going to get worse. I need both of you to promise me that you will take whatever punches he deals and report it. Defense is fine, going on the offensive is a bomb you don’t want going off. Let it all cool off please.”

Penelope huffed from the backseat and Derek wondered what happened, “Hotch it isn’t just Slade though. I mean JJ was getting harassed about me and one of the guys on the football team was making comments too.”

Hotch shot him a look, “I’m aware but right now anything that hurts Slade makes him stronger.”

Derek wanted to argue but he knew Hotch most likely had a plan, if that plan meant do nothing he would do nothing. He trusted Hotch. 

“Also tell Cherry she is welcome over to dinner whenever she wants and that she can bring Chris. She didn’t take up the offer with Elle but who knows maybe she’ll take it now.” 

“Kay.” They were pulling into their driveway now. 

Penelope started to get out of the car, when Derek went to move Hotch stopped him. 

“What are the comments?” 

“Pretty much calling me a girl. Asking what else I learned from Elle, but I shut him down, without my fists don’t worry,” Derek admitted, he didn’t meet Hotch’s eye.

“Do you want to talk to me about it or do you want to just talk about it with Dr. Merrill?” Hotch asked, Derek had never felt so relieved that he had therapy tonight. He had a lot to get off his chest and he really didn’t want to talk to Hotch about all of it right yet. 

“Just Dr. Merrill please.” 

Dinner brought a surprise that none of them expected. Derek was still ignoring Emily’s presence even though Spencer was talking about nailpolish when Spencer announced to the table, “I made a new friend today! His name is Brandon Slade and he’s really cool. He shared his comic books with us at lunch today and asked if he could sit with us.”

“That’s nice Spencer,” Hotch was clearly battling between encouraging Spencer and not wanting Spencer to be a possible target. ‘So much for staying on the defensive,’ Derek thought.

“Yeah he said he has a brother in high school too. Though he said that he and his brother don’t get along that well. Either way he has a bunch of Calvin and Hobbes comics and they were really interesting. It’s all about philosophy and even the two characters are named after famous philosophers.”

Everyone at the table except Prentiss, cause she wasn’t one of them, relaxed slightly. This definitely changed the playing field but Derek wasn’t sure in what way. He didn’t have long to dwell on it, his appointment was at 8 and he needed to figure shit out. 

That was the nice thing about therapy, you could talk about anything and come to whatever conclusions you wanted and you would still be right. It helped him find control, especially right now when it felt like everything was slipping. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I'm going to be posting a lot today cause I'm hella stressed which means I'm writing.   
> Did I casually just make Cherry one of my favorite characters? Yes, she deserves as much love as her unsub, more love actually. I love her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spencer gets hugs and cuddles.  
> Spencer has so much to deal with and he doesn't even know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I have posted a fuck ton today... I would say I'm sorry but I'm not really.  
> Either way this Chapter is in honor of MGG and Halloween. Cause it's Spencer and MGG's favorite Holiday so I figured I would give Spencer a chapter. 
> 
> Warnings for implied child abuse. 
> 
> This is a short chapter mainly because I didn't really mean to write a Spencer chapter yet then realized it was Halloween and felt that I needed to. 
> 
> So Happy Halloween y'all!

Spencer didn’t like the dark. He didn’t like his dreams. He didn’t like the fact that Derek always made sure he was in bed by 9:30 when the rest of them would stay up. He also didn’t like the fact that there was clearly something wrong going on but he didn’t know. That’s what he hated the most not knowing.

  
His nightlight illuminated his covers in a soft glow, it was in the shape of a spaceship because they had found that the moon one reminded him too much of the sickles on the farm and made his dreams worse. Right now he couldn’t sleep, he slipped out of bed and grabbed the biology textbook Maeve had given him for the week because he wanted to know more about genetics. Derek had taken all his reading lights last night but Hotch had insisted that the emergency flashlight stay in its place. Spencer clicked it on and sat in his bed reading and reading and-

“Spencer.” He startled up looking to his now opened door where Hotch was standing. At his name being said so harshly and the way the lighting was he was back in the closet while mommy and daddy fought. “Spencer? Hey buddy it’s alright.” When mommy would throw him in the closet to hide him from the government. “Spencer? You’re safe.” When mommy had thrown him in the closet because she was convinced Gary was coming. When she yelled that daddy was Gary in disguise and-

“Spencer you're not there, open your eyes please,” Spencer jolted again. His room was now flooded with light from the overhead light. Hotch smiled at him, his hands like you would for a frightened animal, “There you are kiddo, I’m going to sit down”

Spencer couldn’t speak, he had to be quiet: mommy was sleeping, Charles was sleeping, Gary was touching, daddy was-

Hotch sat down at the end of his bed, “I know this has been a weird and hard week, Spencer. I’m so proud of you for getting through it. Now do you know why you're still up?”

He shook his head, it wasn’t good not to answer. Honor thy mother. Honor thy father. He just wanted a hug why wouldn’t daddy let him hug him, why was mommy pushing him away, why did Charles beat him for it, why did Gary encourage it then move further-

He was in someone’s arms, who was hugging him. No, he didn’t want to be taken away again. He wanted to escape and read and read and-

“The name that no human research can discover —  
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.  
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,”

The Naming of Cats by T.S. Eliot, Hotch always read him T.S. Eliot. He was with Hotch, these were Hotch’s arms. He was in his purple bedroom with dinosaur borders. Hotch wasn’t mad at him, Hotch wasn’t mad at him.

“Deep and inscrutable singular Name.”

Spencer nuzzled into Hotch’s chest, it smelled of Hotch’s cologne and the laundry detergent. Hotch rocked slightly and Spencer relaxed even more. He could feel a hand running through his hair.

“This has been a tough week hasn’t it?”

Spencer nodded into his chest, hiding his face even more. He could feel tears forming, why was he crying? Hotch’s hand was still just going through his hair, never lower reminding him he wasn’t with Gary or mommy.

“What were you reading?”

This Spencer could answer it was just facts, “DNA sequencing. They are made of two chains of polynucleotides with repeating patterns of 4 subunits of nucleotides. These two chains are then connected through hydrogen bonding.”

“Would sleeping in my bed help you sleep instead of read?”

“Yeah because then you're there to-” Wait this wasn’t facts, how did Hotch do that.

“Okay buddy then to my room we go,” Hotch stood supporting Spencer on his hip before going across the hall and into the master bedroom. He flipped on the little nightlight he had in his room that illuminated one of the bedside tables. He then pulled back the covers and settled Spencer down.He then walked around the bed and got in on the other side. Spencer felt safe and comforted. It was like when mommy use to read to him or when Tobias would sneak into his bed at night to whisper words of comfort before pulling out the needl-

“Spencer you’re safe, you’re okay. Spencer you’re safe, you’re okay,” Hotch was quietly whispering as he curled himself protectively around Spencer. His scent of cologne and detergent returning.

He was safe. There was light. His dreams were full of strange patterns of DNA he had never seen before. He was okay. He was with his family. They loved him. Everything was just peculiar right now, but it would stabilize again.

The morning showed how things could stabilize. Starting with waking up at 5:50 like always. Then Hotch let him have chocolate rice krispies which was a treat and it made his milk chocolatey and delicious. He knew this was because the week had been tough but also because it was Friday, the tough week was almost over and he will have survived it. Emily still seemed unsure and Derek was still ignoring her, he didn’t know why but it would stop when this week stopped because everything would go back to normal and stabilize. It was just this week, it would refresh tomorrow.

His socks today were red polka dots and yellow with bananas. They were going to be lucky and everything would be okay.

Emily talked with him again in the morning, turns out she really liked chemistry and knew a lot about the subject and they traded facts back and forth until JJ yelled that they had to go soon. Everything was stabilizing, it would all be better soon. Emily gave him a quick hug and told him to have a good day. He wondered if that was just because it was a weird week or if it would still be there when everything stabilized.

Purple converse and outside with JJ where she was finishing up her morning stretches and talking excitedly about soccer tryouts.

Yes everything was going to be okay, everything stabilizes.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hotch has a lot on his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Hotch but he really tries to do everything and he needs someone to talk to too.  
> Also Rossi is a gossip.

Hotch sometimes wondered what would have happened if Haley was still alive, if her and Jack hadn’t died. He knew for sure that he wouldn’t be fostering kids, he wondered what would have become of the kids in his house. If Derek would have even more anger issues, if Penelope would would still be as open, if JJ would ever get a stable home, but mainly he wondered if Spencer would ever have been encouraged or if he would end up as some burn out lost to time because no one took time to take care of him. That’s why he needed to take care of Sean, because their parents had failed. That’s why even though he had a court date on Monday, a new kid in the house and a boat load of other problems this week he had to help Sean anyway. He had failed when they were kids, he wasn’t going to fail him again now. The case should be straightforward, Sean was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, at least that is what he made it sound like. Hotch was just happy that Cece had agreed to take the case and help him out. She had assured him the case seemed open-close. 

He yawned as he checked the time, 12:11 p.m. no calls or complications. Today was already turning out better than any other day this week with the exception of maybe Tuesday. He had to figure out what to do about Randy Slade though without making it blow up, he knew that as fair as Cruz was, foster kids were still the easy fall. Not even Hotch being the vice president on the PTA could change that. He wondered what Emily was doing, she was strangely quiet, he really didn’t see how she was a problem child. 

“Emily, you hungry?” He called up the stairs. No response. He frowned slightly, might as well check up on her, he hadn’t seen her since Spencer left this morning. Knocking slightly on her door got him a muffled ‘go away’ that sounded like it was thick with tears. He entered to find a sobbing Emily, her make-up running down her face, she tried to rub it away with her sleeves when he entered.

“Don’t you know what go away means?” 

Hotch regarded her, “Yes, but in my experience kids tend to yell that when their upset.”

“I don’t even know why I’m upset,” Emily stated, “The tears just started cause everything is wrong.”

“Well that sounds like a good reason to be upset, could I sit next to you?” He asked.

She sniffled and nodded, the bed sunk with his weight and he opened his arms in invitation. She didn’t take it.

“I wasn’t supposed to like it here. The plan was I was going to keep bouncing for house to house until I turned 18 and my inheritance kicked in. But Spencer’s so cute and he’s like a puppy he finds you when you're upset and just washes it away. How does he do that? He doesn’t even ask if anything is wrong he just rambles off about everything. And he’s so small and-” Emily started crying again, “I couldn’t find the pads this morning and toilet paper is so uncomfortable and I hate it. I know I said things wrong but no one except Spencer will talk to me now and why do I want to stay in a place that doesn’t want me?” 

Hotch got up and pulled her with him to the bathroom, he wet a washcloth with cool water and started to wash at her face, “The pads are in the downstairs bathroom because Penelope prefers that bathroom and JJ hasn’t gotten her period yet. If you need tampons I can buy them but Penny doesn’t like to use them. Everyone wants to find a place they can call home especially when they are going through problems. Have you even had time to grieve properly yet because from the sounds of it this is a long time coming.”

Emily pushed his hand away and looked up at him, “How the fuck are you so gentle? You look like you should be some corporate heartless bastard but here you are taking care of so many kids and you can even talk about periods without fuss. How are you not married?” Hotch stiffened, any other day he wouldn’t have cared about the married comment but today when Haley was already on his mind with all the Sean stuff it hit. Emily must have noticed and her eyes went wide, “Oh my god I fucked up again.”

“Language please,” Hotch said sighing, “I’ll go grab you a pad, then if you could join me in the kitchen in a few minutes for lunch and we can talk more.”

Emily just nodded fidgeting with her now freshly painted nails. 

Ten minutes later found Hotch sitting at the table with Emily eating reheated Mac ‘n Cheese. Hotch was willing to stay quiet until Emily collected her thoughts. 

“I don't know how I’m feeling about my mom. It’s just empty and hurts,” Her voice was quiet. 

“That’s fine, that’s normal,” Hotch soothed. 

“Who’s Sean? I heard, you yesterday.”

Quid pro quo.

Hotch closed his eyes and leaned back, he had to show more emotion right now it would help build a rapport with her, “Sean is my brother, younger by 10 years. We never really saw eye to eye. Why did you want to bounce from house to house, wouldn’t it be easier to stay in one?”

“I don’t want to get attached to people,” Emily said, then she gave a sad little chuckle, “Why did you let me ever talk to Spencer?”

“Because you needed someone to talk to, someone in your corner who wasn’t an adult you currently were trying to fight against. Was I wrong?”

Emily shook her head, “Why do you foster?”

“Because there are too many kids who need a good home.” That was a half truth, he fostered because of the rings that hung on a chain around his neck. He fostered because he had bought the house with a ring on his finger and then couldn’t sell it when it was no longer there and he decided he might as well use the space. 

He didn’t ask another question because Emily seemed to decide that she was done, she offered him another shy smile and then asked, “Do you think they will talk to me soon?”

Hotch nodded, finishing off his water, “I would be surprised if Penelope or JJ doesn’t break tonight and talk to you. Just stick with Spencer, Friday nights are game nights. Don’t let them play a four player game and if they do ask to be on Spencer’s team.”

Emily gave a nod before slipping from the room, the clock on the stove said it was 12:54. Time to get back to work, Rossi was bringing dinner that night so he didn’t have to worry about one thing at least. One thing at a time. 

Spencer and JJ came home with no complications today, small miracles. JJ went to go get changed for ballet and Spencer immediately disappeared to find Emily. When he was going to drive JJ over Emily offered to watch Spencer so that he didn’t have to go for the drive. Spencer seemed so excited at this idea that Hotch couldn’t find a reason to say no. 

JJ didn’t agree and told him so in the car. 

“Why do you already trust Emily? She almost made Spencer devolve on her first night here and she was rude to everyone.”

“And you made Spencer devolve Wednesday night after she spent the afternoon teaching him about fun physics. Spencer likes Emily and Emily likes Spencer, I’m not going to stop them from being friends.” 

JJ crossed her arms and looked out the window muttering, “She doesn’t know anything.”

Hotch took a breath, one thing at a time, “No she doesn’t but she can’t learn either if y’all don’t talk to her. She’s already learning. She also apologized to me.”

Hotch could tell he had gotten JJ’s interest and that she wasn’t as angry but also that she wasn’t going to let him know that. As they pulled up to the dance studio she didn’t say anything, but she didn’t slam the door either, small miracles. 

Hotch let himself fall apart for a second as he watched her go inside., slumping in his seat and taking deep breaths. Then he pulled out of the parking lot and drove back home. He didn’t have time to waste right now. 

Everything was set for Monday, one thing at a time. Cece had called saying that Sean most likely wasn’t even going to trial and would be turned free, one thing at a time. Ms.Hanson called about the PTA meeting on Tuesday saying that PTA was willing to talk about bullying at the school, one thing at a time. Spencer came down with a big grin on his face to show him how Emily had taught him how to make really good paper airplanes, one thing at a time. When he picked up JJ from ballet she seemed calmer and talked his ear off about how auditions for The Nutcracker were in two weeks, one thing at a time. He got back to hear Dave already in the kitchen laughing with Derek and Penelope as Spencer vied for attention, one thing at a time. One thing at a time and soon everything would be done. 

Dinner with Rossi was always a lighter mood, Emily seemed slightly confused seeing the man at the table and Derek seemed to realize he didn’t want to talk about school with Rossi, his english teacher, right there. But soon the conversation moved to both when Rossi asked, “So Emily what teachers do you have?” 

Hotch watched as even Derek and Penelope turned to Emily with interest. Emily shrugged, “Give me a sec, I can grab my list.” She looked to Hotch and he gave a little nod, she bolted up from the table and he could hear her on the stairs. 

“Are we going to gossip about teachers?” Hotch asked.

“Of course,” Dave laughed, “It’s my favorite pastime. Finding everyone’s dirty little secrets.”

Emily returned with paper in hand, “Okay so first I have AP Chem with Lewis, Peter. So Peter Lewis.”

“Wait Hotch isn’t that the teacher who hates you but you don’t know why?” Derek asked, Hotch would count this as a win: Derek wasn’t addressing Emily but he was acknowledging her presence. 

“Um, yeah I think so,” Hotch said, “Though I think it had something to do with Spencer correcting him about laughing gas or something at a science fair.”

Emily groaned, “Is he going target me then?”

“Maybe? I don’t think any of the kids in the house have actually had him yet,” Hotch admitted.

“Either way I hear the class is living hell,” Penelope added, Hotch looked over at her eyebrows raised, “What Shane’s in that class and he said the workload is already through the roof.”

Emily let out a small huff, “Okay so that class might be hard. Next I have pre-calc with a Curtis Banks?” 

“He’s a gambler,” Dave said, “Shit luck most the time but also teaches AP Stats real well. If you tell him double or nothing he can’t turn you down.”

“Dave please don’t tell my kids to gamble with their teachers,” Hotch sighed, he loved Dave, he really did, but Dave did not understand parenting and responsibility even being a teacher. 

Dave held up his hands, “I’m not sayin’ anything just facts. Nothing wrong about facts right Spence?”

Spencer looked up, eyes bright but before he could go off about facts on facts Hotch decided they better move on, “Emily what’s next?”

“Health class with Calleghan, I don’t get why I have to take health class,” She groaned. Though there was obviously something more to it as she also started picking at her nails again and took a big bite of lasagna. 

“Because homeschooling with private tutors doesn’t teach you about safe sex,” Derek said, “Have fun with that class its going to be full of freshmen.”

So Derek was the first one to fully break silence to Emily, Hotch noted, even if it was to taunt her still something, one thing at a time. 

Emily looked like she wanted to disappear as she quickly moved on, “U.S. History with Jason Gideon.”

Spencer perked up at that, “Gideon’s really nice, kind of weird. He really likes chess and birds. He also hates people but says I’m tolerable.”

Hotch almost choked on his water, he would need to talk to Jason about talking with Spencer yet again. That man was helpful but he didn’t like the extended interest in his son just for his mind. Especially when the man was so dismissive of the other kids in the house.

“You alright there Hotch?” Dave laughed, “Cause Spencer is just stating fact.” 

Penelope laughed too, “Gideon’s kind of weird sometimes but I heard his class is pretty fun cause he gets really into what he’s teaching.”

“I heard the exact opposite, that is class is annoying cause he only does cold calling,” Derek said.

Emily nodded clearly overwhelmed, Hotch took pity, “Gideon’s one of Dave’s friends so we end up seeing him a little more then usual and hear about him a little more too. What’s next.” 

Hotch couldn’t help but notice how quiet JJ had been, even while talking about Gideon, he wondered if it was just the conversation or if she was still mad. 

“Next up we have lunch, then AP Lang & Comp with I don’t even know how to pronounce that last name but it starts with a B and first name is Frank.”

“Breitkopf, he’s an asshole. Also him and Gideon hate each other and I don’t know why. Maybe cause they are too similar,” Rossi said before Hotch could get a word in. Hotch glared at him.

“First language,” He started, “Second Mr.Breitkopf hates Gideon because Gideon helped his wife set up divorce paper through a friend of mine.” He then pointed around the table, “None of you heard that.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay.”

“Of course, what did I hear?”

“Huh?” So JJ had been zoned out.

“Yeah, fine,” Emily said moving down the list, “Is he going to hate me through you?”

“He shouldn’t,” Hotch said, “Just don’t mention marriage.”

“Yeah I can do that,” Emily agrees, “Then Mr. Rowlings for photography. That should be fun, just taking pictures.” Everyone around the table just shrugged, no one really knew who they were. Emily noted this and moved on, “Lastly French 3 with Hayden Montgomery. Not sure if that's a Ms. or Mr.”

“That would be a Ms.,” Dave said, “Definitely Ms.”

“She’s really cool!” Penelope said, “I’m in french 1 right now!” 

“She was married to Dave,” Hotch added with a small laugh, “They ended on decent terms for a summer fling.” Hotch watched with amusement as Dave stuttered slightly before deciding to just drink. 

With that the conversation began to wind down, Derek complained about some of his teachers, JJ complained extensively about Ms. Hallman and Spencer talked about how he corrected his science teacher twice and how his reading teacher didn’t know what books to have him read because he had already read the books she had for his grade. Slowly but surely over the magic that was Dave’s cooking Hotch watched his kids accept Emily into the conversation, even if she didn’t have a lot to contribute. One thing at a time and small miracles. 

After all the kids cleared their places, Hotch and Dave started on the dishes. 

“So, Emily, thought she was supposed to have attitude problems?” Dave asked.

“Oh she did but it was short lived once she talked with Spencer,” Hotch laughed, scrubbing at the stuck cheese on the ladle.

“Ah the puppy dog eyes did her in,” Rossi said, he would know he was constantly being convinced by them no matter how annoying Spencer was being. 

“Also I think her attitude problems came from culture shock and grieving,” He added, “Still working on those ones. I’m just happy they are all talking again.”

Rossi finished drying his tray, “They ignored her?”

“Yeah first night she said some things and they got offended, that’s why I pushed her to hang out with Spencer. Might have been a blessing in disguise.” 

“One thing at a time Hotch. Count your blessings cause from where I stand your doing pretty good at handing them out. So what’s actually eating you?”

“Sean called to help bail him out, I got Cece Hillenbrand to help by calling in a favor,” Hotch sighed watching the water go down the drain, “Everything is going to be fine but it made me feel like a shitty brother cause I couldn’t personally help him.”

“Language!” Dave teased, then sobered, “But seriously Hotch he is a grown man, he’s not a teen or a little kid. No one should expect you to drop your family to help him. Like you said everything is going to be fine. You have priorities here that matter just as much. Hotch you’re not a superhero, you can’t be everywhere and this house needs you. If I’m being honest you need them too. Just take one thing at a time, but prioritize what your next step is going to be.”

Hotch gripped the edge of the counter, he could hear the kids playing what sounded like uno in the other room. He knew that Rossi was right. He needed to take one thing at a time, but he couldn’t keep taking them as they came. He needed to protect his house first and foremost. 

“Dave what do you know about a student named Randy Slade?”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JJ's turmoil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so I'm not dead.  
> I honestly could not write for the life of me. So sorry if this chapter is kind of sucky.   
> I'm probably not going to have another chapter till after the election results have been finished.   
> Cause school stress makes me write this story but currently all my stress is from external sources which makes it so I can't do anything.   
> So yeah. Here have a chapter.

JJ hated being wrong. She could hold a grudge like nobody’s business, or so she claimed. In reality most of the time her grudge holding was her trying to prove someone wrong that she could keep quiet. Yet even she couldn’t keep holding a grudge on Emily after ballet, dinner and then when Emily suggested to Spencer that they play a game. They all knew it was a ploy to make amends because even Emily had realized the other kids couldn’t say no to Spencer when he asked them if they wanted to play a game with him and Emily. They had settled on Uno because it was easy to catch Spencer when he cheated, it was also harder for him to cheat. 

JJ realized how great this decision was when Emily didn't know all the house rules. No stacking, pick up till you can put down and if someone didn’t claim Uno pick up 6 cards, turn is skipped on draw 2’s or 4’s, and most importantly if someone had Uno everyone works together to make sure they don’t have it long. There is no mercy in Uno. JJ remembers all the things that have been banned like wooden spoons, knives and refusal to show how many cards you still have. Emily didn’t understand the risks yet and JJ had almost laughed when she took the seat with her back to the window, Penelope often would look at people’s cards in reflections. 

Penelope won the first game simply because she was after Emily and Emily still didn’t understand you did ANYTHING to knock a person with Uno out and because Derek was always high and mighty and wouldn’t look at cards even if they were flashed at him. Spencer wouldn’t intentionally look at cards but if you flashed them accidentally he would remember them and would expose them if asked. 

By the fourth game Emily had convinced Derek to at least get her to her first period and set her in the right direction for second. Spencer was starting to yawn and JJ realized that she was still the only one who hadn’t had an actual conversation with Emily. Now she was feeling left out. 

“JJ?” Hotch’s call came from the kitchen, “Can you come to the kitchen?”

“Coming!” She called back and darted across the hall, Hotch sat at the table with his phone out. Her heart plummeted. 

“Strauss called-” Hotch started.

“I don’t want to go back. Why won’t-” JJ’s panic was rising.

“JJ!” Hotch’s voice cut through her mounting words. When she closed her mouth and looked up, eyes filling with tears, “The call was to say that they just got revoked for taking you back because your father got a DUI.” 

JJ’s heart plummeted and rose at the same time, she felt happy and sad, like she was going to laugh and cry. 

“Sweetheart, come’ere,” Hotch held his arms out. She wasted no time throwing herself into them, ignoring how uncomfortable it was. “You’re so brave and you go through so much. I wish I could take away your pain, darling. I know this is confusing but you will be alright, we are always alright in the end.” 

JJ wasn’t even crying, she just felt empty and angry. Everything hurt. Then like someone popped her she just felt tired, “Can you carry me to bed, please?” She mumbled embarrassed. 

“Of course,” Hotch picked her up like a princess and carried her up to her bedroom, carefully laying her down on her comforter, “We are going to want pj’s though. Are you good or do you want me to stay?”

“Can you come back in a few minutes and stay till I fall asleep,” JJ’s voice was quiet. That’s what Ros used to do, crawl into JJ’s bed and stay there until JJ fell asleep and then slip back out. 

“Of course, I’ll be back in five okay?” Hotch closed the door behind him. She could hear him going down the stairs. She wondered if he was telling them she wouldn’t be returning to Uno and to not bother them. She was too tired and too empty to feel embarrassed by that. 

When Hotch came back in she curled into his chest and imagined his smell was that of flowery perfume, sweat and vanilla. She drifted to sleep with a heavy heart.

Her dream was a strange picnic scene. Two blankets had been set out on two opposite hills at one her parents sat with a full feast and on the other Hotch and the rest of the house sat with simple sandwiches and juice boxes. Her parents noticed her and started waving towards her furiously, an empty wine bottle in their hands. Hotch seemed to notice the commotion but was too focused on what all the other kids were doing. 

“You know you can only pick one, which one is your real family?” Came a voice that JJ hadn’t heard in a long time. She turned around to find Ros standing there. “One you can’t even talk about me, the other only cares that you are there.”

JJ was confused, “What do you mean Hotch lets me talk about you!”

Ros nodded, “Yeah he does, doesn’t change my statement. Do you think one day you’ll go back to mom and dad and they won’t let you go again somehow, find some strange back law so they can still be drunk and still be parents.”

“JJ!” Her mom called, “The food’s getting cold, come on honey!” 

JJ took a step towards her parent’s hill.

“You know if you go there out of freewill you are never going to get free,” Ros warned. Then the hill was rumbling and a wave came rushing down from where her parents were waking her up. 

The next morning she still felt heavy but it wasn’t unbearable and her anger had been completely crushed. She had her soccer tryouts today. That was right. That was all that mattered right now. Screw parents and things that required her to make choices, all she had to do was play hard and let her body direct everything. 

She got ready and came down to a full breakfast, Saturdays were pancake days always. She grabbed two off the stack and stole the butter and syrup from next to Spencer. 

“Spencer, are you coming to my tryout or are you going to the library?” She asked as a yawning Emily made her way into the kitchen. 

Swallowing his mouth of chocolate chip pancakes soaked in syrup first he responded, “I’m showing Emily the library!”

At her name Emily looked over, “Yeah little man, we are going to get books.”

JJ still didn’t know exactly how she felt about Emily, but Spencer liked her. Though Spencer liked everyone. He had too much love. Like the weird kid Nathaniel that sometimes would follow him around. JJ was pulled out of her thoughts by Derek thundering in.

“Morning all you wonder people, how are you doing on this fabulous morning?” He cheered while doing jazz hands. 

“A-are you okay?” Spencer asked, JJ found herself inclined to agree with the statement. 

“Just answer the question,” Derek gritted out still doing jazz hands.

“I’m doing well?” Emily answered.

Derek dropped his hands and his face turned to a scowl, “None of you saw anything. I hate losing bets.”

Hotch appeared behind him as he said that and only one thought went through JJ’s mind, ‘busted.’

“Why are we betting?” Hotch asked, Derek jumped a foot in the air.

“Hotch, man don’t sneak up…”

“You’re deflecting,” Spencer pointed out, mouthful of pancake. 

“Yeah Derek,” JJ goaded, “What was the bet with Penelope?”

“Nothing. It doesn’t matter, it was dumb and I lost.” 

“Yeah you lost your dignity,” JJ retorted, “I wish I could have filmed that and showed it to the team later today.” 

“Just for that I’m coming to your soccer tryouts with Penelope,” Derek hissed as he sat down snagging two of his own pancakes. 

Hotch was pouring himself a cup of coffee, if the fact he already had a cup and that he normally made half a pot said anything JJ would bet this this was at least his third cup. She looked at the clock, it was only 8:30. 

“Tryouts are at 10:30, the library opens at 10 so everyone needs to be in the car and ready by 9:45, can someone please tell Penny whenever she gets down here. I’m going to go work on some last minute adjustments.”

The moment Hotch left Derek turned to Spencer, “Pretty boy how much did Hotch sleep last night do you think?”

“Well he was still in his office when I woke up and came down at 6, the coffee pot had a fresh full pot of coffee in it too. He only does that when he sleeps less than 3 hours.”

“So we need to make sure he takes a nap today?” JJ asked.

“Probably a good idea,” Derek agreed.

“Catnaps shouldn’t be more than 45 minutes or they can leave the person feeling more groggy than when they went to sleep,” Spencer informed.

“My tryouts only are supposed to take an hour?” JJ offered, “I could tell him I want him to stay in the car and we just hope he doesn’t go grocery shopping.”

“Why don’t you just get him an energy drink?” Emily asked, JJ almost scoffed this was why Emily wasn’t one of them yet.

“You can’t give Hotch an energy drink,” JJ told her, “Hotch can’t stand sweet drinks. Either way hopefully this is just case stress. That way after Monday he’ll most likely sleep well.”

“GOOD MORNING MY FINE FURRY SIBLINGS! AND EMILY!” Penelope entered, “JJ IT’S A BIG WONDERFUL DAY!”

“Indoor voice Penelope!” Hotch’s voice came muffled from across the hall. 

“Yeah Penny,” JJ said smiling, “The sun’s out and there is a light breeze. Perfect for tryouts.”

Plan “give Hotch a nap,” went off without a hitch. Hotch was was a little miffed that JJ didn’t want him to see her but she claimed it was distracting and that Derek and Penelope would be cheering more anyway. JJ pushed herself making sure she got full force behind everything and kept a precise control on the ball as she ran the drills. Eventually they were set up for a scrimmage. Simple 5 on 5 matches where you had a goalie, two defenses and two offensives. JJ was vibrating with excitement as she set herself up as the right wing, she didn’t know her teammates' names yet but she really hoped they all got on the team because they worked well together and annihilated the other team. That’s what Penelope told her at least. JJ honestly blanked, all the mattered was the ball and the field. 

They came to the car to find Hotch on the phone, he seemed really upset. So maybe the plan hadn’t gone to plan. Hotch gave them a weak smile as they climbed into the car, “How’d it go?”

“Great,” JJ answered honestly. But all the wind was now out of her sails and her adrenaline plummeted. Penelope took over the conversation and JJ let it fade into the background, resting her head against the cool window. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really do love everyone's comments and they are helping to motivate me to keep writing and going through all my stress so thank you.   
> Also get yourself a good support system cause man it is great to have people you can rant to and rely on. So yeah this is for those people too. Even though they will never read this.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily gets an email, meets a new person and fights herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guess who's not fucking dead! It's me!  
> This chapter is short but it's my way of saying I'm not dead and that I will not be posting till after December 8th most likely cause finals and holidays.  
> But who knows maybe I'll get super stressed and we will get more content. Who knows.  
> I sure don't. Cause this story literally gets written when my brain goes "fuck this shit we are writing now" and lately it's been writing a Devildad and Spiderson story instead of any of my Criminal minds stuff.  
> Can you tell I write almost exclusively kid fics with trauma?
> 
> Also if anyone knows how to stop your brain from melting constantly please tell me. Thanks!

Emily could see why this was Spencer’s favorite place. The library was a collection of mismatched furniture for reading and writing at, a small computer lab and lots and lots of tall metal book shelves. A librarian named Dr.Blake had come over immediately and introduced herself. Then she and Spencer had practically disappeared to go teach/learn ASL. Emily found herself wandering the shelves until she thought about the computers. She would be able to try and contact John and Matt. 

She opened up her email to find it filled with spam messages and ads for items she might have purchased to make her mother mad. Doing a quick search of Matt’s and John’s email addresses turned up one message from Matt a month ago. She scanned it quickly:

Hey Emily,

Hope you're okay and you're not living one of those miserable orphan lives or whatever. Tell me when you get this so I know you're alive. John won’t admit it but he’s worried about our favorite goth too. 

Don’t forget to go to church. Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do. 

-Matt

Emily could feel the tears welling up, she swiped them away aggressively, stupid fucking menstral cycle. She hated feeling emotional like this. She gave a wet laugh at the last line, she had pretty much abandoned the notion the moment that she didn’t have Matt bringing her. She wasn’t particularly religious, she just liked hearing Matt and John talk about it. The same way she was now having Spencer talk to her about physics. Wait, no. She looked at the email again. Did she respond? Get typed out a quick reply.

Hey,

Sorry that I didn’t see this earlier. I’ve already gone through three homes and now am in a fourth home. All the kids here are super fucking traumatized but are still so functional. Like this is the house they send the kids with problems in. Guess it makes sense I ended up here. Not living a terrible orphan life yet but who knows maybe these kids will rub off on me cause I’m the oldest pretty much everywhere I go. 

I still don’t understand why they couldn’t just pay my nanny and servants to take care of me with the inheritance for a year and half but oh well. 

Guess what I’m going to have to go to American public school. I am not excited, it is gross and not at all like the movies from what I’ve been able to tell thus far. Honestly nothing is like the movies and it’s disappointing. 

Also like the head of this house is super strict but also challenges himself to not let kids “beat” him or some shit so unless I attempt to murder one of the other kids I don’t think I can bounce from this house. Though I think even attempting murder wouldn’t get him to budge, maybe I would need to actually murder and go to juvie. Not doing that. 

I miss you guys a lot.

Em

She reads it over and hits send before she can regret it. She regrets it instantly. She should not have loaded so much on him. Stupid period. 

“Damn you writing an essay there?” 

Emily jumps three feet in the air and turns around to find herself face to face with a boy she has never seen before. He’s wearing all black and honestly if she wasn’t so startled she would like his aesthetic. 

“No,” She spits, “Hasn’t anyone told you it’s not nice to read over someone’s shoulder or look into their business?”

The boy raises his hands in surrender, “Hey now I was just curious cause I don’t recognize you.”

“Wow a city with around 84,000 people and you don’t recognize me?” Emily drawls. She feels proud that she half remembered Spencer’s statistic. 

“No need to be so rude sweetheart,” The boy is smirking now. Emily doesn’t like him, she doesn’t like this. She doesn’t want to be whatever it is he’s doing. 

“Not my name.”

“Well what is your name?”

“You tell me first incase I need to report you for harassment.”

“Ouch, my name is Mike Zizzo, everyone just calls me Zizzo though.”

Emily looks at him again, maybe this is one of the kids you can get drugs from. And man does she want a hit of something. “Emily Prentiss. Most people call me Emily.” 

“Cool, well I was coming over originally to tell you I like your vibe,” He said, “Do you go to QHS?”

Emily took a second to place the fact that QHS was the public highschool, “Yeah, starting on Monday.”

“So you are new!” 

“Yeah and?”

“Nothing, just happy I was right. Well either way if you’re interested A wing far stairwell between 5th and 6th period. Though most of us blow off 6th period. If you want to get involved with similar vibe people.”

Emily thought about it, it didn’t sound like the worst thing possible so she just gave a nod, “Yeah okay, don’t know where that is but I can try and find it.” 

Zizzo gave her a little nod, Emily realized that his eyes were red. This dude was high, it took all her self control to not ask him if he had anything she could take right then But she was in a public library and Spencer was right there and she already knew that Spencer would spill to Hotch accidentally not to mention the librarian. As if she called his name three times Spencer came running towards her.

“Emily!” 

Zizzo turned, “Oh, it’s a Hotchner!”

“Emily’s gonna be a Hotchner too!” Spencer defends.

Zizzo seems to twitch at that, “Well nice chatting Emily.”

As he leaves Spencer watches him a little before turning back to Emily. 

“Zizzo’s cool. He told off the last person who tried to give me drugs.” 

Emily kept forgetting that Spencer had been through more than any kid should have while still staying like an innocent puppy. 

“Mhmmm,” She responded as she quickly closed out to the email, she didn’t need Spencer reading it. 

“Anyway Dr.Blake was just telling me that they have new books on dinosaurus but they also have a new book on space and I because I have a limit on how many books I can take out I needed your opinion. Dinosaurus or space?”

Like this, this didn’t sound like a traumatized kid yet she had seen him chanting the bible and all the times he got spacey. “Hmmmm… I would go with dinosaurus.” 

“Okay! Thanks Emily!”

Hotch comes not even ten minutes later just as Spencer is checking out his last book. The whole thing is a well oiled machine and Emily is trying to figure out why she is fitting in so well. 

She doesn’t ask if their plan to give Hotch a nap goes well. It is not on her mind. She does not think about it. 

When they get home. No. When they get to the house everyone scatters to do their private activities. Hotch yells something about remembering to finish their chores. Emily hasn’t been put on the chore chart yet. She doesn’t want to be part of this machine. She goes upstairs and continues her book. The book, it isn’t hers. She pulls out her iPod nano and headphones and lets the music roar in her ears blocking out everything else. Why hadn’t she done this earlier? 

That is until she has a JJ in her face fuming slightly. Pausing her music she pulls up a headphone.

“Can I help you?”

“Can you listen to your music quieter?” JJ hisses, “We share a wall and I’m trying to take a read and can hear your music cause the walls are thin.” 

“Oh,” Emily says dumbly, “Sorry.”

JJ huffs and walks back out of the room. Emily cuts her volume in half and continues to listen while reading. 

She doesn’t even realize when she passes out till she wakes back up to a small finger poking her face.

“Dinner’s in five minutes,” Spencer informs her. She’s grateful that he woke her up, she honestly hadn’t been meaning to fall asleep. 

Yawning, she nods her understanding. Her headphones are silent, the playlist must have ended. 

As she pads down the stairs so that she can slip into her, no, a seat a minute before dinner will be served she finds herself wondering if she fits so well because she wants to. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love a blunt and spacey child Spencer. No one knows what to do with him, he will tell you everything even if you aren't ready for it. But does he even know what's happening? Who fucking knows.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hotch has thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YO I'M BACK ON THIS BULLSHIT!
> 
> So ummmmm.... I got reinvested into Marvel and went and wrote those cause I was playing around with legality, grief and dumbasses with powers. 
> 
> But this is back cause I decided to finally finish this chapter. 
> 
> It is hella short.
> 
> The first half was written when I was really stressed. 
> 
> So I let Hotch Curse, warning for that I guess. 
> 
> ENJOY!!!!

Hotch is going to murder a man. That man’s name is George Foyet and Hotch is going to murder him. George Foyet is going to get murdered if he keeps leaving his children’s sheets blank for what their injuries were after fights. How the fuck is he supposed to help the bullying problem and help stop Randy Slade from harassing students if Foyet’s fucking nurse reports make it look like his kids have super healing or are invincible. When Randy had a possible bruised tailbone but the nice bruise that Hotch knows Derek came home with isn’t documented at all past the pictures that Hotch took later and Chris Summers wouldn’t let Foyet check him out at all. Hotch buries his head in his hands. He doesn’t have time for this. The PTA meeting is on Tuesday. Court is on Monday. Thank god that even though the client is annoying he can listen and is less likely to shoot them all in the foot. No instead Hotch is going to shoot himself in the foot because he is trying to address an issue too soon in the year. All he will get done is another one of the Carols and the Susans proposing a bakesale to help raise money to stop bullying and no actual action or help. 

“ ‘otch?” Spencer’s voice is thick with sleep and snapped Hotch out of his downward spiral.

“Yeah buddy?”

“I think I have to go to a meeting.”

Right fuck his youngest kid had to go to NA meetings every once and a while when he got the urges because some 13 year old thought it would be a good idea to pump a 4 year old with narcotics he had stolen from the addict next door to help them both sleep. He did not express any of this instead he put on his warmest smile and hoped it reached his eyes as he said, “Thank you for telling me. Did you need something else?”

He was really hoping Spencer didn’t need a human teddy bear tonight, he really needed to work. 

“Can you sleep with me please,” Spencer is looking down and fidgeting and Hotch knows that he probably had been thinking about it for a couple hours and practicing saying it if he was now voicing it. He couldn’t say no. He looked over at the clock that read 2:48 a.m.. Maybe it was bedtime.

“Of course I can,” Hotch said, keeping his tone light and warm. 

He scooped Spencer up, no matter how much he fed this kid he was still underweight. The doctors said that he might have always been like that or it might have been due to something in his childhood. Hotch hated the fact that the doctors said those words as if implying that Spencer was no longer a child or had already gone through childhood by age 8 although he was almost 9. Wow he really was tired.

Spencer cuddled straight into his side once in bed and Hotch is pretty sure that Spencer didn’t actually need a human teddy bear as he seems to fall directly into sleep. Hotch lets out a quiet laugh before his head hits the pillow and he’s promptly lost to sleep. 

Hotch sleeps through the alarm. Or at least he assumes he just slept through the alarm because the clock is reading 11:24 a.m. to him but his alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m.. Hotch realizes Spencer isn’t in bed with him either, that’s not unusual; he usually wakes up before everyone else, if he sleeps to begin with. As he pulls on a pair of jeans he realizes what woke him: smoke. Not bothering to change out of his sleep shirt he races down the stairs and into the kitchen to find a scene of chaos in front of him. 

Spencer is on the floor panicking and Derek is trying to calm him down as Penelope and Emily try to fan the smoke billowing out of the oven away from the smoke alarms as JJ is opening up windows and doors. 

Emily notices him first and completely freezes which alerts Penelope to his presence. 

“Hiya Hotch!” Penelope says, though her voice sounds less cheerful then usual, “We tried to make muffins.”

“Why is there smoke coming out of the oven?” Hotch said wearily. Now all the kids were frozen eyes on him. Even Spencer seemed stock still, eyes wide and terrified.

“The oven started having flames in it!” JJ announced, “So Emily grabbed out the muffins and Derek threw water on it and then everything got really smokey. We should have listened to Spencer, he was saying to not throw water. But we put out the fire.”

Hotch pinched his forehead and thanked the gods that he had had about 9 hours of sleep for once. “It’s a convection oven. If there's a fire in it you should never throw water on it. You might have just messed up the whole oven. Where the muffins burning?”

“No that’s the weird part,” JJ continued, “They aren’t even done.”

“So that means something left on the bottom of the oven was burning. Most likely droppings from Rossi’s lasagna or the mac ‘n cheese. Next time get me or let it burn please.”

“But you were sleeping!” Penelope argued.

“Speaking about that, did someone turn off my alarm?”

Spencer had silent tears running down his cheeks and had started to rock again. When Derek attempted to rub soft circles into his arms again like he had been doing before Hotch entered Spencer let out a blood curdling scream. 

“Open the windows and get out of the house,” Hotch barked and strode over to Spencer. He lifted the boy swiftly and brought him outside to the backyard. Spencer went limp in his arms. 

Sitting on one of the swings in the backyard with Spencer on his lap as he quoted poetry was less than ideal for a Sunday morning. Wait the NA meetings that Spencer went to met at noon and it was at least 11:40 by now. Spencer was still in pjs on top of that. 

“Hey Spence,” Hotch said to the now quiet boy in his lap, “Do you still want to go to meeting today?”

Spencer gave a little nod.

“Alright then we are going to need to get you into some clothes and get out the door. Can you go get clothes. I promise the smoke isn’t harmful.”

“I know,” Came a whisper then his weight was gone off his lap. 

Hotch rounded on the other kids.

“I need to take Spence to a meeting. I’ll be back by 12:15 at the latest. The smoke won’t hurt you. Stay out of the kitchen please.” 

“Sorry Hotch,” Derek said as a reply. 

Hotch scrubbed his face, “It’s fine. It’ll be fine.”

He was thankful that his sleep shirt is presentable so he doesn’t have to think about changing and can just grab his keys, grab Spencer and get in the car. 

One thing at a time. 

Spencer used to ask him to stay for the meetings but he’s since made a friend named Elian Morales, a highschool dropout that is now trying to get his degree  online and works in a local soup kitchen.

Hotch trusts him to watch out for Spencer because Elian never wanted to turn to drugs either. 

Cleaning is cathartic.

Cleaning up the dishes.

Wiping down the countertops.

Washing, drying and putting away the dishes.

Checking out the oven and deciding it was not broken.

Cleaning out the burnt and now soggy cheese from the bottom of it.

Allowing the oven to do it’s self locking self cleaning.

Allowing himself to not have to think of anything.

Then picking up Spencer. 

Now he can deal with all the kids at once.

“I appreciate what you were trying to do.”

He really does and if it wasn’t such a disaster he would feel guilty that his kids were trying to take care of him. That they could see that he was falling apart.

“But in the future please just wake me up.”

Can he really fault them for any of it though.

“No one is in trouble because everything was salvageable in the end. Let’s just have a nice quiet Sunday okay?”

Lets see if Hotch can get 5 hours of no distractions. Timer starts now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact that oven thing is something I did once and I was just sitting in a smoke/water vapor filled house pretending nothing was wrong.   
> Then my mom came home and she freaked cause it can ruin the oven.


	15. HEY!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HEY!  
> Not an actual chapter. But please do read.

I'm sorry this is not an actual chapter, but I would like to explain some things. 

This fic is not abandoned at all but it will not update until June. This is because I left all my notes for this story 5.5 hours away from where I am now and literally cannot write this story without said notes. 

I was not planning to write this little explanation at all but I felt like I owed an explanation especially cause people were commenting "update" and that stressed me out. 

But hey tell me what character you want the next chapter's pov to be from, just can't be Hotch. 

Stay safe and wear a mask. 

Thanks for understanding. 


End file.
